Uis community members have alleged that a Chinese Mining company, Xinfeng, and several others are mining Lithium while their licenses were approved to mine semi-precious stones in the Daures Constituency of the Erongo Region.
The Community Spokesperson Jimmy ||Araseb has requested the Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo to revoke the mining licenses of all operators who are suspected of dodgy dealings.
The Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo and Erongo Governor Neville Andre convened a meeting with community members at Uis to discuss the alleged illegal mining activities in the area.
The meeting attracted a huge crowd, including Members of Parliament from the Landless People's Movement.
Community members earlier this month expressed their frustration over illegal mining and handed over a petition to the leadership.
One of the community members Jimmy ||Araseb indicated that, since the protest, the community has done a further investigation into the allegations and discovered overwhelming evidence of illegal dealings.
"Xinfeng investment, this company has an EPL application 8843 which is in the Uis area and is still in its application process, an active mining license 243, and a pending renewal EPL 7228 in Okombahe/Omaruru area. The long-fire investment that is covering up for Xinfeng mining, the one that the minister is saying is legal sir, we don't think that company is legal, we think that company is illegal. Why do we say so? This company has 10 mining claims that are from 73408 to 73418 for semi-precious stones only, not for Lithium mining, for semi-precious, we have the application that they applied for semi-precious stones and not lithium or rare earth metals. "
The community is now wondering about who gave these companies, the right to mine industrial and rare earth minerals on the land they derive their livelihood.
In his response, Minister Tom Alweendo said if there is anyone violating the law there will be consequences.
"The petition you have given earlier there was no proof of any illegality, there wasn't but now you seem to have more evidence to show that these are illegal but at least on our records, based on what we thought we had, there was no illegality. But I cannot deny saying there is something wrong, maybe we missed something. And now that you seem to have that evidence, give us the evidence and then we see how to deal with it, I'm not going to defend anyone because they are doing it illegally, I'm not going to defend anyone who is found to be in contradiction of what the law says. It doesn't matter who it is. I don't support illegality but it has to be proven. "
Alweendo stressed that Government and the community are on the same side and a second investigation will be carried out to give answers to the issues raised.