The European Union is considering options for financing mineral exploration in Namibia to support Europe’s need for critical raw materials, a Finnish delegation says.
The European Union (EU) launched its Global Gateway investment strategy in December 2021, with one of the focus sectors being climate and energy, which includes securing critical raw materials.
Finland’s ambassador to Global Gateway, Roy Eriksson, this week said the EU Commission is leaning heavily on Finland to develop projects that address critical raw materials.
“The Finnish mining sector covers the whole value chain. In EU terms, Finland is the leading technology provider when it comes to mining. So we are looking for possibilities to use Global Gateway as an instrument to find competitive funding for projects,” he said.
The goal of the EU initiative is supporting sustainable development that benefits both European businesses and partner countries like Namibia, Eriksson said.
Financing is one of the areas in which he believes there is more work to do.
“We try to find solutions that are best for both parties. We have to listen carefully – what does Namibia want? Especially in mining, I’ve heard that the biggest hurdle is financing at the beginning of the exploration and when opening a mine,” Eriksson said.
“That’s something I’ve discussed with my team. How can we find the solutions for financing in the early stages? Because that is a big challenge. Even within the Global Gateway, we don’t really have the right instruments yet, but we’re working on it,” he said.
Finland’s ambassador to Namibia, Katja Kalamäki, says the relationship between the two countries extends beyond financing and mining.
“Both countries always say we have a special relationship. I think out of all African countries, Finns probably know Namibia the best. We have a long history together, going back almost 160 years,” she says.
Finland has established relationships in education and healthcare in Namibia, Kalamäki says.
“Because Finland and Namibia are very small, we want to concentrate on certain areas and not try to do everything.
We focus on mining, but also on circular economy and on energy questions. And these three questions, they sort of come together in Namibia,” she says.
For the past five years, Finland has organised a delegation to visit the mining expo in Windhoek, Mining Finland chief executive Aleksi Salo said.
“There’s a long history of working together on various projects before, so now we’re starting this new page on zero-waste mining,” he said.
