White gold brings more benefits

Vice-President Nickey Iyambo officially opened the N$65 million Walvis Bay Salt Holdings new salt field on Monday.
The additional salt ponds will increase production from 700 000 to one million tons annually and will enable the company to access North American markets.
Managing Director of Walvis Bay Salt Holdings Andre Snyman announced that opportunities for further local salt beneficiation would be created as a direct consequence of the expansion.
He said feasibility studies are currently underway to determine what the company can do locally in order to reduce Namibia’s dependency on the import of salt-related raw materials for the mining and manufacturing industries.
According to Snyman, Namibian manufacturers import most basic raw materials and Walvis Bay Salt Holdings will leave no stone unturned in exploring greater mineral beneficiation locally with government support.
The company is also investigating the local production of certain chemicals for the local market that include caustic soda. This value addition project will offer relief to local manufacturers and increase exports.
Salt has more than 14 000 known uses.
Namibia currently exports its raw salt to Chloorkop in South Africa where it is processed and distributed.
A number of chemicals such as caustic soda which is used by the uranium mining industry are derived from salt as well as hydrogen used to generate electricity and chloride used in the process of purifying water. Snyman further recommended wavering certain export taxes incurred when exporting salt to some countries.

New markets
He said with new markets such as North and South America, Namibia’s transport network needs to be revamped.
On his part, the vice-president said Africa has been a dumping ground for processed products for too long.
He welcomed the Walvis Bay Salt Holdings initiative to manufacture chemicals from salt locally and called on the company to expedite the envisioned process to ensure that the country becomes an exporter of more commodities to international markets.
Iyambo also implored the Minister of Mines and Energy Obeth Kandjoze to ensure that stumbling blocks encountered when applying for mining licenses are discussed with applicants and removed with urgency.
Iyambo further hailed the expansion project as a positive contributor to the socio-economic landscape of Walvis Bay and lauded the investors for their investment in the Namibian economy, heeding government’s call for market diversification and transforming the manufacturing sector by local beneficiation, responding to the growth at home strategy.

Good investment
“Positive growth enabled the business to undertake this investment into the local economy,” he said.
Iyambo praised the company for deciding to pull in the same direction as government by ensuring that one of its subsidiaries, Ekango Salt Refiners is 25% owned by previously disadvantaged Namibians including a number of women in rural communities.
He also welcomed ongoing negotiations on an employee benefit sharing scheme for the 170 employees saying it was commendable. Before the new expansion, the salt pan area was 4 500 hectares with a maximum production capacity of 750 000 tons of salt.
Walvis Bay Salt Holdings is a subsidiary of CAH Group of companies and will soon be associated with the SynChem Group.
Walvis Bay Salt Refiners is responsible for value addition activities that include washing, refining bagging and marketing of salt for industrial and general purposes.
Ekango Salt Refiners produces more than 60 000 tons of table salt annually under the Cerebos brand for local and export markets. The facility is HACCP certified and managed under strict food safety management systems.

OTIS FINCK