Small-scale miners in Namibia face limited market access, financing constraints and land challenges, deputy minister of industries, mines and energy Gaudentia Kröhne says.
She was speaking at a session of the Rural Women’s Parliament with Men as Partners in Windhoek on Tuesday.
The deputy minister shared the challenges faced by small-scale miners.
“These include limited access to finance from financial institutions due to the risk associated with businesses of this nature,” she said.
Kröhne said access to land is another challenge, as most mining activities take place on commercial farmland which is privately owned.
In such cases miners enter into a contract with landowners – often to their own detriment.
This, she said, deters small-scale miners from proceeding with their operations.
Small-scale mining activities mainly take place in the mineral-rich Erongo, Kunene and ||Kharas regions.
They are exclusively reserved for Namibians aged 18 and above who can mine semi-precious stones, dimension stones, and industrial minerals requiring low -capital investment and limited technical expertise.
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