Namibia East China Non-Ferrous Investment, a mining company, says it has discovered large deposits of iron ore in the Kunene Region.

The General Manager of Namibia East China Non-Ferrous Investment, Ming Li, said they discovered a deposit of 2.37 billion tonnes of iron ore, which has a lifespan of about 100 years, even if the resources were to be mined at a fast rate of 20 million tonnes per year. Ming gave this information to the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Tjekero Tweya, who was at the exploration camp in the Kunene Region on Saturday to gain first-hand information about the discovery.

The deputy minister will be going to China sometime soon to further negotiations on the development of this high value industrial iron ore in Namibia.

"This is part of our evolution towards the goals of becoming an industrialised country, as stated in our Vision 2030. This discovery will take us one step closer towards industrialisation," noted Tweya.

The discovery was made some 30 kilometres south of the main town of Opuwo, at Orumana village.

According to the geologists on site, the iron ore runs from the northeast to the southwest for a distance of seven kilometres, and it covers a thick layer of about 160 metres in depth.

The iron ore was discovered in one of the six exploration and prospecting licence (EPL) areas of the Namibia East China Non-Ferrous Investments company, numbered 4432.

The discovery was also confirmed by South African mining company Coffee Mining, which forwarded a summary report of samples from the 47 holes drilled in the EPL to their own laboratories. The holes were drilled since last year.

"We received the confirmation and report of the estimated tonnes of iron ore in EPL 4432 from the laboratories in South Africa on 17 August 2012, and we are sure that there is more of that iron ore in the Kunene Region," said Ming.

According to Ming, another 2 billion tonnes of iron ore will be unearthed at another one of their EPLs in the Kunene Region soon.