Information technology company Spatial Dimension will this week start working on a six-month project to implement its computerised mining cadastre system, FlexiCadastre, for the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy.

The Ministry is responsible for facili- tating and regulating the development and sustainable use of Namibia’s mineral and energy resources.

The contract, which was signed in December, will result in FlexiCadastre being implemented as the Mineral Title Management System for the Ministry to automate its mineral titling workflows and improve compliance within the sector.

The project will entail business process definition and design, data loading and validation, system configuration and user training and support.

“The Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy has always been at the forefront of using technology to assist with good governance in its minerals sector,” says Spatial Dimension MD Bill Feast.

He says the Ministry has significantly invested in computer-based systems since the early 1990s and has had one of the leading Mineral Title Management Systems worldwide for many years. However, as a custom-built solution, it became difficult and costly to support and maintain. This prompted the Ministry to approach Spatial Dimension for a proposal to implement FlexiCadastre.

“This is not the first time that Spatial Dimension has been contracted to replace a mining cadastre system that failed to meet the long-term needs of the client,” says Feast.

Spatial Dimension replaced a custom solution that failed to meet the operational requirements of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) mining register, or Cadastre Minier, in 2007.

The Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Mines also contracted Spatial Dimension to implement a public and online mining cadastre portal to strengthen government’s capacity to manage the minerals sector.

Further, the company was also contracted by the Zambian Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water to upgrade its existing mining cadastre system and by the Mozambique government to expand the cadastre system of the country’s Ministry of Mineral Resources.

Namibia is the fifteenth country to implement FlexiCadastre, boasts Feast, adding that countries currently using the FlexiCadastre system include Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique and the DRC.