TSX-V-listed Tsodilo Resources has joined the Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG).

The WBCG is a public-private partnership established in 2000 to promote the use of the Walvis Bay Corridors to the ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz in Namibia.

The WBCG was established to engage in business development activities, thereby increasing cargo for ports and corridors linked to it, and to engage in the facilitation of corridor and infrastructure development.

The Walvis Bay corridors are an integrated system of well-maintained tarred roads and rail networks – accommodating all modes of transport – from the Port of Walvis Bay through the Trans Kalahari, Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Development Corridor (previously known as the Trans-Caprivi), the Trans-Cunene and Trans-Oranje corridors providing landlocked Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries access to transatlantic markets.

The corridors, serving the two ports, are a network of transport routes from the neighbouring SADC countries of Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The corridors include the ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz; the Trans Kalahari corridor connecting Botswana and South Africa; the Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi development corridor connecting Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and the DRC; the Trans-Cunene corridor connecting Angola; and the Trans-Oranje corridor connecting South Africa.

Of specific importance to Tsodilo is the Walvis Bay – Ndola – Lumumbashi Development Corridor (WBNLDC), which connects Namibia, Zambia and the DRC, with further links to Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania.

The WBNLDC provides the shortest route between the Namibian west coast ports of Lüderitz and Walvis Bay and the vital transport hubs of Livingstone, Lusaka and Ndola, in Zambia; Lubumbashi, in the southern DRC; and Zimbabwe.

Tsodilo said on June 29 that this corridor “is perfectly positioned” to service the two-way trade between the SADC region and Europe, North and South America and emerging markets in the East.

Currently, the portion of the corridor between Grootfontein (Namibia) to Katima Mulilo located on the Zambian border is the portion of the corridor to the Xaudum iron project and is currently connected by a Grade A bitumen highway used for the transportation of goods and services.

However, in March, the Namibian Ministry of Works and Transport commissioned a feasibility study for the Trans-Zambezi Railway Extension Grootfontein – Rundu – Katima Mulilo.

This feasibility study is one of the project components being implemented under the Namibian Transport Infrastructure Improvement Project and the consultancy services are being funded by the African Development Bank and the Namibian government.

The Trans-Zambezi Railway Extension line linking Zambia and Namibia is planned to pass through Divundu, providing access to Walvis Bay, Namibia's deep-sea port. 

The proposed rail extension between Grootfontein and Katima Mulilo is significant to Tsodilo as the extension is planned to pass through Divundu, in Namibia, which is located about 35 km from Tsodilo’s licence area in northern Botswana.

The feasibility study is expected to be completed by the end of this year and its results will be considered in Tsodilo’s preliminary economic assessment.

“The proposed rail extension is an important development for Tsodilo as it opens up a proximate rail transportation system for the delivery of the project’s potential iron products, such as iron concentrate, iron pellets, potential direct reduced iron products, and ferrosilicone products, throughout Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as international markets” commented the company's chairperson and CEO James Bruchs.