Somaliland:The Speech of H.E Hussein Abdi Dualeh, Minister of Energy & Minerals at the 20th African Mining Indaba + Video

By Goth Mohamed Goth

Somaliland Minister of Energy and Minerals Hon Hussein Abdi Dualeh addressing the 20^th African Mining conference in Indaba, South Africa told Participants that Somaliland is a democratic state is very stable and secure situated in the Horn Africa and lies between Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia and that we have been independent for more 22 yrs.

“We (Somaliland) have adapted an open law policy towards mining investments and when it comes to background risk, we have low risk although one will think that any place in the horn Africa is not safe but we are a beacon of stability in terms of good governance, peace and democratic insti tutions, “He Stated.

Hon Hussien Abdi Dualeh went on to say , “Investment in mining in our country is highly encouraged; we are basically green fields because we do not have at the moment any large scale mining activities and that any company which is willing to invest in Somaliland gets advantage to be a first mover and that of a underground foe ,our terms are very competitive ,we are also working on a new mining code that will include all good terms in it and we are also going to re –avoid that have marred  mining companies in Africa,

“We have also unique geographical location ,Somaliland East –west ending along the coast line and it has the coast if you have mineral deposit and if your exploit it will be cheap will be very take  to market the logistics of moving from such a close area to deep port like the port of Berbera its definitely  much less costly than a really getting fantastic deposit the middle of continent  which will cost you really huge amount of money to export it and that is the advantage we have considering even the small deposit be commercially viable  considering the logistics involved in taking the minerals to market, “He said.

In his speech the Minerals Minister briefly elaborated on the geology and the mineral of Somaliland it will mention what minerals may be present in our basics, I take about metallic minerals and non-metallic, potential areas and some recently discovers and I will conclude at that, Somaliland has a very favorable geological settings, for metallic and non-metallic minerals, it could have potential for having world class discoveries, 

The Somaliland Basin consists of high grade high grade Proterozoic migmatites, granitoides and pegmatites, and lies north-eastern branch of the Mozambique belt we also sit on the Nubian trend that hosts a lot of minerals and parallel in countries such as Eritrea & Sudan, what is it really special about Somaliland? Geology in Somaliland has very long history it contents rocks of many productive characters

Recent geological survey’s in show that Somaliland has an abundant reserve of mineral deposits which include uranium and largely unexploited reserves of bauxite, coal, copper, guano, gypsum, iron ore, phosphate, salt, tin, uranium, lead, Silver, Gold, zinc, natural gas and possibly oil reserves.

Somaliland Minster of Energy and Minerals concluded his speech by saying, “The geological and mineral potential are very attractive for future exploration environments we have commercial grade resources of Iron ore , Manganese and platinum, So as I said Somaliland is one of the few areas in Africa which offer a lead path, you couldn’t get a ,more better terms ,a much larger exploration license and a better fiscal terms  not to mention the predictability  of any investment in Somaliland we a very stable government in place.

Our country has undergone for democratically held electoral changes and as I said we have no conflict of any kind, basically we are a beacon of peace and stability in the horn of Africa and we are interested in bring up our mining sector at a speed in which we did with our Hydrocarbons sector.

So we want to really welcome the adventurous junior companies, we have even started gaining interests from certain firms and other Middle Eastern companies so I guarantee you we won’t be green fields forever and we are much more feasible now and we are willing to disgrace in order to view investment opportunities who have come to the country for mining and the logistics of finding anything will be more easier than in some of the other areas in rest of the continent.

Like I said we are very motivated to engage with the junior mining companies who really want to get out the beaten track, so I hope all of you will take this opportunity, thank you.

SomalilandPress.com