A Canadian diamond mining company active in offshore diamond exploration near Lüderitz now also intends to exploit the rich copper Haib resources in southern Namibia, some 8 kilo-metres off the Orange River. Involved is a dormant Namibian black empowerment company, in which a High-ranking Namibian government official also has a stake. The announ-cement was made in Montreal just before Christmas, but it went unnoticed in southern Africa.

Afri-Can Marine Minerals Corpo-ration and Deep South Mining (PTY) Ltd on 20 December 2004 announced the signing of a memo-randum of under-standing with Mintek of South Africa concerning the development of the Haib copper deposit in Namibia. Mintek is a provider of minerals processing and metallurgical engi-neering products and services, and is a technological leader in bioleaching.

Afri-Can will employ Mintek to provide metallurgical test work and engineering services to Afri-Can for development of the Haib copper deposit, the company said in a press release. Mintek will provide Afri-Can with the results of Mintek’s previous work on Haib. Afri-Can and Deep South will grant Mintek an option to acquire

up to 20% equity in the Haib deposit.

"Afri-Can and Mintek will employ their best endeavours to enter into a definitive option agreement within 6 months of the date of signature", the statement said.

Haib is a large copper deposit. The indicated resource totals 292 million tonnes at 0.46% Cu, which is in excess of 2.9 billion pounds of copper in situ. The deposit is located in the Karas region, 8 km from the Orange River in the southern Namibia. Afri-Can has an option to acquire a 70% interest in the Exploration License for the Haib deposit from Deep South, the Namibian black empowerment company.- Deep South allegedly specializes in the "acquisition and development of mineral resource properties", according to the press release of Afri-Can. It also holds the

the exploration license of the Haib deposit.

Among the shareholders in Deep South, which does not even have its own office are Augusto Macuvele, a Mozambican geological consultant living in Namibia, Luke Nepela Ndawedapo, Rolene Muhetuma Damases and 3 equally dormant black empowerment companies. They are Bio-Revival Investment, Gibeon Mining and Inter-Namibia Mining & Investment Company.

Ms RoleneDamases, Mr Rehabeam Rapama Kamehozu of Grootfontein, Francis Kooper, the only Nama-speaking shareholder and Andrew Ndishishi, permanent secretary in the ministry of trade and industry are shareholders in Gibeon Mining.

The shareholders of the other two companies, which are also without an office, could not be traced, because no company secretary has been appointed yet.

According to a local mining expert, the 4 Namibian companies appear to be only front enterprises, serving only a small elite with regard to profits.