Chinese prospector cleans up Khan River mess

A CHINESE mineral exploration company, Zhonghe Resources, has admitted that it is the owner of the hundreds of bags of mineral samples found lying in the Kahn River recently.
The bags have been removed.

An anonymous caller to The Namibian yesterday identified Zhonghe Resources as the ones responsible for leaving behind about 400 canvas and plastic bags containing gravel and mineral core samples.The call was received after a report appeared in yesterday’s edition of The Namibian, stating that the Namibian Chamber of Mines was investigating the origin of the samples.The bags, suspected to contain uranium samples, were found by Gert Heussen of Wlotzkasbaken during a trip up the Kahn River with his family last weekend. Besides being unsightly, there were also concerns that the Kahn River would sweep the bags downstream, spreading the potentially radioactive pollution.The caller also gave the name of the senior manager of Zhonghe Resources – Michael Wang – and said that the company had removed the bags immediately after the first report on the matter had appeared in the newspaper last week.When approached for comment, Wang was in Walvis Bay, but immediately insisted to visit The Namibian’s office in Swakopmund for a meeting on the matter.Wang admitted that the bags belonged to his company, but said that they were not abandoned, as had been reported.’We are still exploring in the area, so we did not abandon the bags. They were ready to be sent away to be tested,’ he said.Asked why the bags had being lying there so long, he said that the holiday season played a role.’We had just finished drilling at that site in the beginning of December. So we put the bags there, and moved on to other areas for more samples. Seeing that it was holiday, we did not expect that there would be much other activity in the area, so we wanted to finish collecting all our samples before sending them away. ‘But once we saw the article and the concerns of the people, we immediately removed them,’ he said. ‘We are just as concerned with the mining and environmental laws of Namibia, and so this will not happen again.’Dr Wotan Swiegers, Principal Advisor on Health and Environment of the Namibian Chamber or Mines in Erongo, told The Namibian that the industry would continue to commit itself to responsible stewardship.’We have channels in the region through which we want to maintain health and safety in a sustainable manner,’ he said. ‘We want to bring all members of the industry together under one roof, which will make it easier for the regulators to co-ordinate the industry – and hold players accountable.’He encouraged Zhonghe Resources to join the fraternity in good faith and becoming responsible stewards with the rest of the industry.