Hertta-Maria Amutenja
The delivery of a judgment in the court case between Chinese lithium miner Xinfeng and the Minister of Mines and Energy Tom Alweendo has been postponed to 22 June 2023.
The judgment was initially set down for 2 June however, Judge Ramon Maasdorp postponed it.
The mining company filed an urgent application with the High Court earlier last month to challenge a decision by the Minister of Mines , to revoke its mining license.
Alweendo had revoked Xinfeng’s license, which was issued in September last year, citing misleading, untrue, and incorrect information submitted by the company during the application process.
Earlier In February Alweendo, in a letter to lithium miner, Zhou Hao informed of his decision to revoke Mining License 243 situated in the Exclusive Prospecting License (EPL) 7228 area near the small desert settlement of Uis.
The Minister instructed the lithium miner to surrender the physical ML 243 document on 31 May 2023 to Isabella Chirchir the Mining Commissioner at the Head Quarters of the Ministry of Mines and Energy located on 6 Aviation Road in Windhoek.
Alweendo claimed the lithium mining company made fraudulent and misleading statements and used plagiarised material when it applied for a mining licence.
However, the mining company which claims to have so far invested N$200 million and to have employed more than 200 Namibians, has denied the claims made by the mining minister and provided clarification regarding the reports that were submitted in error.
The Minister also said that before he took the decision to revoke the license he informed the mining company that the technical report and the reports regarding exploration work, mineral resources and mining methods were copied from the work of others.
The mining license was to run until 2042.
