Namibia’s Chamber of Mines is in negotiations with the government over a proposed super tax on the mining industry likely to be implemented in 2012, a senior official said on Thursday.
Last year the southern African nation pulled plans to raise the mining tax for companies in the non-diamond sector to 44% following major concerns over its tax hike proposal.
Instead it stuck with the current 37.5% and proposed a formula-based surcharge to get extra revenues when the economy is performing well.
“We are in negotiations now at the moment on the super tax,” Mark Dawe, the chamber’s president, told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference.
He said the chamber, which would get feedback on its proposals from the government on Friday, was punting for a common super tax on all commodities to prevent an administrative burden on miners.
Asked whether the industry was confident it would achieve the same success for its super tax talks it had when lobbying last year on gross sales taxes, Dawe said they were confident government would do the “right thing”.
“But we’re very concerned that they’ve scared away a number of investors as a result of these pronouncements. A number of companies have left Namibia,” he said, without elaborating.
Namibia is one of the world’s largest producers of diamonds and has huge deposits of uranium, with Rio Tinto and Australian miner Paladin Energy currently producing the key nuclear material.
Foreign firms are also exploring for gold, lead, zinc and iron ore. — Reuters