Meeting with Mines Ministry leaves hope for speedy Haib licence renewal – Deep-South

Haib Minerals, the fully-owned Namibian subsidiary of copper explorer and developer Deep-South Resources, held a “very constructive” meeting with Namibia Mines Minister Tom Alweendo, Mines Ministry mining commissioner Isabella Kandjii-Chirchir and Mines Ministry deputy executive director Erasmus Shivolo on April 13.

Deep-South Resources has been in a legal battle with the Namibian Ministry of Mines to renew its licence to explore the Haib copper project.

Deep-South president and CEO Pierre Leveille says the meeting was conducted in a “very positive manner”.

He adds that Deep-South is “highly confident” it will now create renewed strong working relations with the Ministry’s officials.

“Further to the meeting, we are confident that the licence will be renewed in a timely manner,” adds Leveille.

In March, the High Court of Namibia reviewed the case and set aside the decision of the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Namibia not to renew the licence, instructing Alweendo to restart Deep-South’s EPL 3140 licence renewal application procedure and arrive at a new decision. The court also ordered the Ministry to pay the legal costs of Haib Minerals.

To date, Deep-South says the Ministry has not appealed the High Court verdict, and has re-opened the application renewal procedure for the Haib licence.

Stemming from the latest meeting, Deep-South says the parties have agreed that Haib will provide additional information that covers the work completed between the licence application date of January 2021 and June 2021.

The miner also notes that its Haib licence has been reinstated in the cadastre of the Ministry, which shows that the licence is valid and pending renewal.

Deep-South also says the Ministry’s officials have agreed that, upon reception of the documents from Haib, they will proceed promptly with the analysis of the application to finalise their decision in a timely fashion.