WALVIS BAY/WINDHOEK – Cabinet on Tuesday placed a moratorium on marine phosphate exploration in a cautious move to guard against any potentially harmful marine mining activities. The government intends to carry out independent research before reconsidering the controversial exploration of marine phosphates.
The decision effectively freezes the high hopes of investors who have poured hundreds of millions into exploration activities in the hope of embarking on marine phosphate mining by the end of this year.
By yesterday afternoon, Sakawe Mining and Namibian Marine Phosphate, the two leading mining companies that were waiting to embark on marine phosphate mining, expressed surprise at the announcement saying they were not properly consulted and have not received any official communication from government.
The Cabinet moratorium is aimed at allowing the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Ministry Fisheries and Marine Resources, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to put heads together on the matter, and to appoint independent consultants and experts to conduct an un-biased Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the potentially lucrative prospective marine mining enterprise. The agreement for an EIA scoping will be signed at the end of this month and is estimated to cost N$2 million.
Cabinet arrived at the decision based on recommendations by the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Bernhard Esau, whose submission to Cabinet included the fact that the mining companies that were granted mining licences did not meet the set conditions attached to such licences.
“They clearly did not meet the requirements, hence the moratorium was necessary. We cannot allow any mining activities without knowing the impact of such activities on the fishing industry,” Esau said yesterday. The fisheries and marine resources ministry, whose mandate it is to safeguard the country’s marine resources, has set certain preconditions that would determine whether or not the companies could proceed with the offshore mining of marine phosphate. The mining activities were only to start once an environmental clearance was obtained from the fisheries ministry, because of various concerns over the impact of mining activities on fisheries, the seabed and other marine resources in the Atlantic Ocean. “We are venturing into unknown grounds and it is of utmost importance that we conduct these studies to determine the impact of phosphate mining on our other natural resources. It is impossible that we embark upon a journey that has not yet been proven. In fact, this will be the first ever [offshore] phosphate mining [venture] in the world,” Esau explained.
Managing Director of Sakawe Mining Corporation, Kombadayedu Kapwanga, said they “were not properly consulted, nothing has been communicated to me so far. I would like to look at the conditions of the moratorium before making further comments.” Sakawe Mining Corporation has been investing in the exploration of marine phosphates in the marine area of Lüderitz for the last 10 years. Barnabas Uugwanga of Namibian Marine Phosphates (NMP) also said the company has not received any communication with respect to a moratorium on any activity related to phosphates and hence is not in a position to comment.
NMP, which has been the most vocal and at the receiving end of ecological lobby groups and activists, has already commissioned its own EIA report to establish the degree to which its operations may affect the environment and in particular the marine environment. NMP has poured hundreds of millions of Namibia dollars in the exploration of marine phosphate deposits just off the coast of Walvis Bay.
Esau informed the fishing industry, which has been a vocal objector to marine phosphate mining, that it is now time for both industries to embark on collective efforts to discuss the way forward. “The fishing industry is not against phosphate mining, in fact we believe that we should exploit all our resources but it must be in the spirit of co-existence. The underlying issue and what should be done should not be put aside, we have seen what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico. We do not want this to happen here as well,” Esau told the fishing industry in Walvis Bay yesterday. “In terms of job creation, phosphate mining is insignificant to the fishing industry [given] the 13 000 jobs the industry creates compared to 300 the phosphate mining [is expected to] create. Most of the people that will be employed will not be locals, since we don’t have the expertise,” Esau said.
By Eveline de Klerk and Tonateni Shidhudhu