While its primary business is unearthing Namibia’s golden riches, B2Gold Namibia is proving it’s equally adept at cultivating a different kind of bounty: food. The mining giant has commenced the harvesting of its 2024/2025 maize crop at Farm Erhardshof, nestled adjacent to its Otjikoto Gold Mine, with early indicators suggesting a bumper yield set to significantly exceed previous harvests.
The company is forecasting a remarkable output of nearly 2,000 tonnes of white maize from its innovative irrigation scheme, a substantial leap from the approximately 1,100 tonnes produced in the 2023/2024 season.
“Yesterday, 3 June 2025, we started harvesting our 2024/2025 maize crop in Namibia at our B2Gold Otjikoto Mine, yet again beating expectations. We forecast to harvest close to 2,000 tonnes of white maize off our irrigation scheme. Well done to the team on the ground,” declared a proud John Roos, B2Gold Namibia’s Country Manager and Director, on Tuesday.
Roos attributed this agricultural triumph not merely to favourable weather, but to B2Gold’s unwavering commitment to long-term sustainability. “Yes, we mine gold, but thinking toward the future is most important – solving for food insecurity in Namibia,” he emphasised, highlighting a strategic shift in the company’s approach to its social license to operate.
Farm Erhardshof, originally acquired to facilitate the development of the Otjikoto mine, has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past four years. What began as a logistical necessity has blossomed into a thriving agricultural venture, seamlessly integrated into B2Gold’s broader sustainability initiatives.
The farm’s inaugural harvest in 2021 yielded an impressive 12.87 tonnes of maize per hectare, alongside 220 bales of Katambora Rhodes grass – a resilient animal feed. Since then, the maize yield has shown consistent improvement, demonstrating the efficacy of the project’s design and implementation.
This innovative agricultural endeavour is not merely a philanthropic side-project. According to the gold miner, the initiative is meticulously designed not only to bolster local food production in a nation grappling with food security challenges but also to form a crucial component of its long-term post-closure land use strategy. It’s a proactive step towards ensuring the land remains productive and beneficial to the community long after the last speck of gold has been extracted.
As B2Gold Namibia demonstrates, the path to prosperity doesn’t always lie solely beneath the earth. Sometimes, it flourishes on its surface, offering a golden harvest of a different, but equally vital, kind.
