Walvis Bay Corridor Group courts the mines

Leandrea Louw - The Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG) recently welcomed Tsodilo Resources Limited, an international diamond and metals exploration company, as one of its members. As the first mining outfit to join the corridor group’s associated membership programme to explore potential opportunities for its operations.

Tsodilo is currently engaged in the search for economic diamond, metal deposits and industrial stone at its Bosoto (Pty) Limited (‘Bosoto’), Gcwihaba Resources (Pty) Limited (‘Gcwihaba’) and Newdico (Pty) Ltd. (‘Newdico’) projects in Botswana.

According to Cindy-Lu Hasheela, WBCG manager of marketing and communications, mines have a significant impact on transport volumes.

“They not only have to transport their raw materials, but also their mining supplies and equipment. Southern Africa is blessed with many mining operations. Historically speaking, there is a clear link between the development of the rail and road infrastructure in Africa, in order to connect the mines to the sea ports. Mines are therefore a crucial partner in increasing cargo volumes and developing logistics and transport infrastructure.”

Of specific importance to Tsodilo is the Walvis Bay – Ndola - Lumumbashi Development Corridor (WBNLDC) which connects Namibia - Zambia – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with links to Angola - Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania. WBNLDC provides the shortest route between the Namibian west coast ports of Lüderitz and Walvis Bay and the vital transport hubs of Livingstone, Lusaka and Ndola in Zambia, Lubumbashi (southern DRC), and Zimbabwe. This corridor is perfectly positioned to service the two-way trade between the SADC region and Europe, North and South America and emerging markets in the East.

She explained that the Walvis Bay corridors, through the Port of Walvis Bay, has become a prominent route for importers and exporters in the region.

“Namibia’s role as a gateway for the SADC region has become more prominent and has created more interest from the region. This clearly implies a more efficient and effective service position to the region’s importers and exporters using Walvis Bay. In addition, it is a faster, congestion free and pilferage free transit to and from the region. Our corridors are efficient and safe. With regards to the Namibia Logistics Hub as a catalyst for international trade linkages, great emphasis has been placed on the enhancement of infrastructure to link Namibia with the rest of the SADC region. Positioning and branding the group competitively through partnerships enables us to increase balanced import/export cargo volumes.”

Hasheela stated that the core mandate of the WBCG remains that of creating value for its members by effectively promoting the port of Walvis Bay and their network of rail and road.

“To that end we streamlined our Business Development portfolio to ensure we focus on short term opportunities and engage those clients and accounts in the region that would easily convert to using our corridors. This was done with a long-term view of attracting large volumes and further ensures a firm base of operators on the corridors.”

“We envision being the leading trade route for southern Africa. We are committed to facilitate and promote transport and trade along our secure and reliable corridors and to provide “innovative” service offerings to our customers. We strive to consistently exceed our customers’ expectations and to add value through our unique Public – Private – Partnership (PPP). We are committed to promote trade along our corridors, provide innovative and competitive service offerings to our customers and add value through our unique PPP.”

Currently the mine is at infancy, and is establishing all systems and procedures in order to commence operation. The transport of all its equipment and supplies and then raw materials, will considerably impact the cargo volumes going through the port of Walvis Bay.

“In our role as facilitator in the logistics sector, we are able to assist the mine with the relevant connections it needs to set up its logistics solution in order to move its goods. In our role as facilitator of trade, we play a vital role in assisting our members to resolve challenges they face while moving their cargo on our corridors. This service that WBCG provides is unique to our corridor and is found nowhere else on the continent.”

Tsodilo mine has a 100% stake in its Gcwihaba Xaudum Iron project area in the North-West district of Botswana.

“The Xaudum iron project will potentially become one of Africa’s biggest magnetite iron ore mines, where Tsodilo will look to transport and distribute its iron products utilizing the Walvis Bay Corridors, such as the Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Development Corridor that passes right next to the Xaudum Iron project.”

Furthermore, the company holds a 100% stake in Bosoto (Pty) Ltd which holds the BK16 kimberlite project in the Orapa Kimberlite Field (OKF) in Botswana and the PL216/2017 diamond prospection license also in the OKF. The Company has a 100% stake in its Gcwihaba project area consisting of seven metal (base, precious, platinum group, and rare earth) prospecting licenses all located in the North-West district of Botswana. Additionally, Tsodilo has a 100% interest in its Newdico industrial stone project located in Botswana’s Central District. Tsodilo manages the exploration of the Newdico, Gcwihaba, and Bosoto projects. Overall supervision of the Company's exploration program is the responsibility of Dr. Alistair Jeffcoate, Project Manager and Chief Geologist of the Company and a "qualified person" as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101.

The corridor group role of attracting more cargo through the ports onto the corridors has become more crucial due to the new Container Terminal in Walvis Bay.

“The additional consolidated efforts of Industry stakeholders is valuable to attain the increased volumes needed. As a PPP, we are able to realise more significant goals. Increasing our membership base to include relevant role players, improves our value proposition. As part of our business development strategy, we aim to build our membership base in order see our corridors become the leading trade route in southern Africa.”

“Our members remain at the heart of our service delivery and will continue to be the guiding factor in all our activities.”