Namibia had no power to cancel Chinese miner’s licence, court rules
NAMIBIA'S mines minister did not have the power to cancel a Chinese lithium miner's licence and should have approached the courts to revoke it, a judge ruled. Lithium miner Xinfeng took Namibia's mines minister Tom Alweendo to court after he cancelled the company's mining licence in April and ordered it to stop operations by May 31. The minister accused the company of obtaining the licence after a flawed application process. Xinfeng challenged the minister's decision in Namibia's High Court, arguing that Alweendo did not have the power to revoke his earlier decision to grant the mining licence. "The first respondent…