Mining and Sustainability? Systems and Stakeholder Analyses of Uranium Mining in Namibia

• Main Author: Pietrzela, Mateusz
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper 2013
• Subjects: Sustainable development; uranium mining; systems thinking; stakeholder analysis; Namibia
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-204172

Roughly 10% of the Namibian GDP and over 40% of total exports are dependent on themining sector. Namibia is one of the five leading uranium producing countries worldwide withperspectives to triple the production in the following years. This study aims to identify the implicationsto sustainable development of the country carried by such a strategy to stimulate the economic growth.The complexity of the issue is addressed by an interdisciplinary set of methods leading to a betterunderstanding of processes linking uranium mining in Namibia with the environment, society and theglobal economy. Regulatory, trade and production systems are outlined and assessed, after which astakeholder analysis is conducted in order to determine who are the most influential actors as well asparties affected by the uranium production in Namibia. The results reveal a great dependence of the Namibian uranium mining sector on external factors, with the government perceived as the most affected stakeholder.