Namibia has granted an environmental clearance certificate (ECC) to the Sandpiper Marine Phosphate Project, helping the seabed mining venture clear a key regulatory hurdle.
The project aims to mine phosphate in Atlantic Ocean waters in depths of 180 to 250 meters on the continental shelf off the west coast of Namibia, and if it moves forward, it would become the first commercial phosphate mining project in the world.
For more than a decade, the project, which is being developed by Omani-owned mining firm Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP), has drawn heavy backlash from environmental groups and the Namibian fishing sector, with the Confederation of Namibian Fishing Associations (CNFA) being one of several groups that have called for a revocation of the company's mining license and continually challenged the project in court.
“It is evident that no mining for marine phosphate should take place before independent, hard, scientific evidence is produced,” CNFA Chair Matti Amukwa told the Namib Times in 2022. “The fishing industry, directly and indirectly, contributes NAD 66.2 billion [USD 4 billion, EUR 3.6 billion] to the Namibian GDP and is too important for us to allow Namibia to be the test case to see whether marine mining is potentially harmful to fishing or not."
The granting of the ECC has sparked backlash yet again, including infighting within the government itself.
The Namibian Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Land Reform (MAFWLR) recently challenged Environmental Commissioner Timo Mufeti’s decision to grant the ECC, with Minister Inge Zaamwani stating she was caught off guard by the decision to award the clearance certificate, which is valid for three years from the date of issue, and only became aware of it “by means of a social media post.”
The CNFA also accused Mufeti of overstepping his mandate in issuing the ECC, as the country’s Environmental Management Act requires companies with existing authorizations to apply for an ECC within one year or seek an extension, which the CNFA said NMP failed to do.
In response to the latest round of pushback, NMP said the ECC does not automatically translate to “immediate commencement of mining operations.”
“The project remains subject to implementation of the detailed monitoring programs in line with the Environmental and Social Management Program [ESMP] and completion of additional permitting processes for the terrestrial component of the project,” NMP said in a statement, adding that the firm stands ready to implement marine environmental monitoring activities in accordance with the ESMP and the conditions outlined in the ECC, including a government-led oversight structure chaired by the Environmental Commissioner that “will regulate mining activities supported by independent expert review, with monitoring, baseline validation, and impact assessment independently verified.”
Over the 15 years since first securing a mining license, NMP has continued to argue there is evidence from local and regional studies confirming the planned mining operations “can co-exist with fishing and other related marine-based industries, just as fishing already co-exists with the existing marine diamond mining operations in Namibia."
“Published evidence from these independent expert reports conclude that the Sandpiper Project will not ‘kill the fishing industry,’ as claimed in some media reports,” it said.
Amukwa and other fishing stakeholders, meanwhile, have claimed such studies were carried out by researchers paid for by NMP and that their concerns about the project largely remain unaddressed.
For now, the case remains in judicial limbo, with several legal appeals that have yet to wind their way through the nation’s courts.
