Welcome to the Chamber of Mines |
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Mining industry overviewIn the 43 years of its existence, the Chamber of Mines of Namibia has grown to a membership of 105 members (as at February 13, 2013) and represents the interests of all the major mining and exploration companies active in the country.
Industry Performance for 2011/2012Unfortunately, Namibia's official statistics on mining's contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are produced with a significant lag. This is expected to change with the establishment of the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA). Figures produced by the Central Bureau of Statistics for 2010 show that overall mining growth remained limited following the extraordinarily tough year of 2009. Mining’s direct contribution to GDP fell further to 8.8% despite signs of recovery in diamond mining. This figure distorts the importance of the mining industry as it does not include revenues from zinc refining, diamond cutting and polishing and copper smelting, all products of mining. With consideration of these contributors, mining remains by far the largest sector of the Namibian economy.
Diamond mining regained its status as a greater contributor to GDP than non-diamond mining. Total value added from mining fell to N$7.2 billion in 2010 from N$8.0 billion in 2009. Mineral products excluding cut and polished diamonds) contributed 54% of Namibia’s total merchandise exports.
Despite the modest recovery, the mining sector once again spent more on fixed investment - approximately N$4.3 billion, than Government or indeed any other single sector of the economy, accounting for just under a quarter of all fixed investment in the country. A lot of exploration expenditure is not being captured in the official statistics and that the real figure is even higher.
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