Stellar growth year for mining

At constant 2010 prices, adjusted for inflation, mining last year contributed nearly N$12.4 billion to Namibia’s GDP.
Augetto Graig
Jo-Maré Duddy – Mining and quarrying in 2018 had its best year since 2012 and boasted with annual growth of 22%.

At current prices, the sector pumped nearly N$27 billion into the economy, contributing 14% to Namibia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.

Diamonds delivered a shining performance, contributing some N$18.2 billion. Metal ores contributed about N$4.7 billion, followed by uranium with nearly N$2.9 billion. Other mining and quarrying contributed about N$1.2 billion.

At constant 2010 prices, adjusted for inflation, mining last year contributed nearly N$12.4 billion to Namibia’s GDP of around N$108.9 billion.

Annual growth was significantly up from the 13.3% of 2017, according to the latest preliminary national accounts released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA).

The performance in the sector is attributed to diamond, uranium and other mining and quarrying subsectors that recorded strong growth of 13.7%, 64.8% and 54.1% respectively, the NSA said.

In 2018, diamond subsector real value added increased by 13.5%, compared to 12% recorded in 2017. The increase in the diamond subsector was due to high volume of carats produced in 2018.

Despite low demand and depressed uranium price, uranium subsector is estimated to have registered a robust growth in real value added of 64.8% in 2018, compared to 23.4% recorded in 2017, the NSA said.

“This performance was reflected in the increase in the production volume of uranium due additional mine [Husab] reaching its full potential,” the agency said.

Other subsectors

Other mining and quarrying subsector registered a strong growth of 54.1% in real value added compared to 7.6% registered in 2017.

“The performance of the subsector is attributed to increase activities in mineral exploration and the production of marble and salt during the period of 2018,” the NSA said.

The metal ores subsector registered flat growth in real value added in 2018 compared to a growth of 11.8% registered in 2017.

“This performance in the subsector is attributed to gold that recorded a decline of 14% in real value added, compared to a growth of 8.6% recorded last year 2017. The poor performance in gold, was due reduction in volume produced during the period under review,” according to the NSA.

The NSA’s figures show that investment, or gross fixed capital formation, in the mining sector has been declining since its peak of N$17.7 billion in 2014.

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Allgemeine Zeitung 2024-04-20

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