Orano Mining Namibia has been named Namibia’s leading mine safety performer for 2024, earning top honours in the Chamber of Mines’ Category 3 award for care and maintenance operations after recording a perfect zero injury frequency rate.
The company’s flagship asset, the Trekkopje uranium mine in the Erongo Region, has been on care and maintenance since 2013; however, Orano has continued to manage site safety with the same rigour applied during active operations.
Trekkopje was initially developed as a heap-leach uranium project.
While market conditions have kept it inactive, Orano maintains readiness for potential future restart while contributing to the local economy through environmental monitoring, community support programmes, and technical training.
The award was presented during the industry’s annual conference, where Orano was joined on stage by three other category leaders.
Bannerman Mining Resources took the Category 2 title for exploration projects, recognised for stringent safety standards during active drilling and field operations. Bannerman is advancing the Etango-8 uranium project near Swakopmund, one of the world’s largest undeveloped uranium deposits.
The project, currently in the front-end engineering and design phase, is expected to produce 3.5 million pounds of uranium oxide annually over an initial mine life exceeding 15 years, once it enters production.
The company’s exploration teams operate across the Erongo uranium province under challenging desert conditions, where they have embedded a strong safety culture into daily operations.
Consolidated Copper won Category 1, Division B, for operating mines with fewer than two million hours worked annually, praised for consistent safety management in a high-intensity restart environment.
The company is focused on restarting Namibia’s brownfield copper portfolio, including the Tschudi cathode operation (which resumed LME Grade-A output in 2024) and the Central Operations underground mines, as well as Otjihase and Matchless, with Berg Aukas under evaluation.
Debmarine Namibia secured Category 1, Division A, for operating mines that exceed two million hours annually, honoured for maintaining a strong safety performance at scale in challenging marine conditions.
Debmarine, a 50/50 joint venture between the Namibian government and De Beers Group, conducts offshore diamond mining using a fleet of advanced vessels, including the Benguela Gem, the world’s largest diamond recovery vessel.
Operating at depths of 90 to 140 metres off Namibia’s southern coast, Debmarine recovers over 1 million carats annually, with offshore safety protocols covering everything from diving support systems to heavy crawler operations.
Barcelona Tsauses, Chair of the Chamber’s Health and Safety Committee, said the awards celebrated a collective commitment to keeping workers safe.
“There is no winner when it comes to safety — the only winner is everyone going home the same way they arrived: healthy and uninjured,” she told delegates.
The ceremony came as the mining industry reported a 14.6 per cent rise in direct employment to 20,843 people in 2024.
However, Tsauses noted that after a fatality-free 2023, the sector suffered one loss last year — a contractor who died during the installation of a solar plant at Rössing Uranium.
Lessons from the incident were shared across the sector to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
She also announced the completion of new Health and Safety Regulations, developed with the Chief Inspector of Mines, to replace Namibia’s 1968 ordinance.
The updated rules, soon to be implemented under the Minerals Bill, will bring modernised governance to mine safety.
Industry collaboration has also extended beyond mine gates, with road safety partnerships alongside the MVA Fund helping reduce national road fatalities over the past 11 years, and quarterly cross-mine peer reviews fostering the exchange of best practices.
Chamber President George Botshiwe congratulated the winners and urged all operators to maintain vigilance. “Even those not on stage today have played their part,” he said.
“Safety is the responsibility of every person in this industry, every day.”
