Rössing eyes 100-year mine life
Rössing Uranium is working on a project to extend the life of its Erongo mine by up to 20 years beyond the current 2036 closure date, with a formal decision expected within the year, managing director Johan Coetzee said at the company's 50th anniversary stakeholder dinner in Swakopmund on Tuesday (30 June).
The uranium producer's current mining licence, tied to the Phase 4 Pushback and ongoing exploration, runs to 2036. According to the company's 2025 Sustainability and Performance Report, a separate project known as Z20 is now in its feasibility phase, with a Final Investment Decision due this year.
Speaking at the dinner, Coetzee said the extension target under consideration went further than the report states.
"We are currently looking at extending the life of mine beyond 2053, maybe to 2056," he said, adding that the plan depended on finances, uranium prices and technical outcomes. "If the finances work out, if the uranium price remains good, if the technical things that we want to do work out, we're currently looking at extending the life of mine."
Coetzee said the extension request would go to the Rössing board "later this year, or early, early in next year" and that the board had already signalled support in principle.
"We just have to make the sums work," he said.
He linked the extension to a longer-term goal set by majority shareholder China National Uranium Corporation (CNUC) since it took control of the mine.
"When the majority shareholder, our new majority shareholder CNUC took over the majority shareholding, they said they really would like to see this mine become the first centennial mine, the first hundred-year-old mine in Namibia," Coetzee said.
Rössing began production in 1976 and is Namibia's longest-running uranium mine. The company's report shows Namibia is now the world's third-largest primary producer of uranium oxide, supplying 13% of global output, behind Kazakhstan (40%) and Canada (14%). Rössing itself accounted for approximately 4% of world primary production in 2025.
The company reported turnover of N$8.2 billion and profit from normal operations of N$1.002 billion for 2025. It paid N$300.4 million in corporate tax, N$219.9 million in royalties and N$231.8 million in dividends. Uranium oxide production totalled 3,185 tonnes.
Rössing employed 855 people at the end of 2025, of whom 98.9% were Namibian and 21.2% female. The company reported zero fatalities during the year, against an all-injury frequency rate of 0.38, below its 0.46 target. It recorded one permanent disabling injury and two potentially fatal incidents, which it said were identified and mitigated.
Social investment for the year totalled N$46.1 million, of which N$36 million went to the Rössing Foundation and N$10 million to community initiatives. The company reported spending N$4.02 billion of its N$5.12 billion total procurement budget with Namibian suppliers.
