The European Union has entered Namibia through a technical assistance programme supporting lithium development at Andrada Mining’s Uis Mine.
The support, administered by the European Investment Bank, is aimed at accelerating the Uis Lithium Expansion Project to bankable feasibility level, positioning the operation within Europe’s emerging critical raw materials supply chain without the EU taking equity or providing direct project finance.
The intervention is delivered through the EU-OACPS Technical Assistance Facility on Critical Raw Materials, a European Union–funded mechanism designed to help African, Caribbean, and Pacific states convert their mineral endowments into bankable, ESG-compliant projects aligned with Europe’s industrial and energy transition needs.
Rather than offering loans or acquiring assets, the facility finances high-level technical work such as feasibility studies, metallurgical testing, infrastructure design and regulatory support.
By embedding EU technical, environmental and governance standards at the project design stage, the EU reduces future supply risk while avoiding direct ownership or financial exposure.
Under the cooperation agreement, Andrada’s wholly owned operating subsidiary, Uis Tin Mining Company, will receive consulting services valued at up to €2 million.
The assistance is provided on a grant basis and carries no repayment obligations, no equity dilution and no future funding commitments.
The European Investment Bank will act as the facility’s administrator, appointing and managing specialist consultants to execute the feasibility work, while the operating company will assist in guiding the programme and reviewing technical outputs.
The Uis Mine licence covers an area of approximately 19,700 hectares and hosts numerous pegmatites containing lithium, tin, tantalum and rubidium mineralisation.
Petalite is the dominant lithium mineral present across the licence area. To date, Andrada has identified about 180 pegmatites over roughly five per cent of the licence and has confirmed a mineral resource of approximately 138 million tonnes from just two of these bodies, the V1 and V2 pegmatites.
Andrada’s medium-term target is to define a 200 million tonne resource from these pegmatites, underpinned by the scalability of the flagship Uis tin and tantalum mine and plans to integrate a lithium production circuit.
The current Mineral Resource Estimate for the Uis V1/V2 pegmatites, released in February 2023, stands at 81 million tonnes grading 0.73% lithium oxide, 0.15% tin and 86 parts per million tantalum, equating to contained metal of about 1.45 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, 120,000 tonnes of tin and 6,960 tonnes of tantalum, reinforcing Uis’ potential to evolve into a globally significant lithium supplier.
Andrada intends to monetise the lithium contained in the run-of-mine material by constructing a beneficiation circuit integrated into the existing tin and tantalum processing facility at the Uis Mine.
The additional integrated circuit will not increase the ore requirements from the mining operation. Instead, it will reprocess waste material from the tin and tantalum concentrator for lithium enrichment. Lithium mineralisation at Uis predominantly occurs as petalite.
During the initial phase of development, petalite concentrate will be produced for the technical lithium market, with an initial production target of 50,000 tonnes per annum.
Previous feasibility studies for this phase have advanced the project to a pre-feasibility level of confidence.
Andrada envisages a second phase of development aimed at supplying the lithium refining industry with concentrate for producing lithium chemicals for the fast-growing battery industry.
Andrada chief executive Anthony Viljoen said the partnership marked a major milestone for the company, materially accelerating its lithium development strategy while validating Uis as a strategically important asset within the global critical minerals supply chain.
He said accelerating the lithium project stream, with a clear objective of reaching bankable feasibility, positions Andrada to become a recognised source of lithium. Viljoen added that the project would deliver strong local economic and social benefits for Namibian citizens, grow the company’s existing contribution, and position Andrada at the centre of the EU’s critical mineral supply framework. Ultimately, he said, the project would advance Andrada’s critical minerals offering, enhance long-term shareholder value and contribute meaningfully to the Namibian economy.
From the European Investment Bank’s perspective, the agreement aligns with Europe’s broader effort to diversify critical raw material supply under the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act.
Andrea Clerici, Director for Corporates and Global Activities at the EIB, said lithium’s classification as both a critical and strategic raw material was driving increased institutional backing for projects that diversify supply.
He said the partnership with Andrada is aimed at developing investor-attractive projects that maintain high environmental and social standards and are mutually beneficial for both African and European partners.
The technical assistance funded through the EU-OACPS facility is focused on closing the remaining feasibility gaps, particularly around metallurgical optimisation and related infrastructure studies, which are essential to securing project finance and long-term offtake agreements.
The Uis agreement reflects a deliberate strategy of intervening at the feasibility stage rather than mine construction, shaping future supply at source while lowering risk for European investors and downstream manufacturers.
It delivers high-quality technical work for Namibia at no direct cost to the project, reinforces Uis’s credibility as a critical minerals asset, and positions the country more firmly within global clean-energy supply chains.
The Uis Lithium Expansion Project now advances with institutional backing that accelerates its path to bankability, underscoring how technical assistance has become a central instrument in the geopolitics of critical minerals.
