Staff Reporter
INDEPENDENT Fisheries Management Scientist Dr Carola Kirchner has said that the current granting of an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) to Namibia Marine Phosphate (NMP) Pty Ltd as it stands is incomplete, as the environmental impact of the mining on shore is yet to be assessed.
Dr Kirchner detailed that a closer reading of the ECC, its accompanying Notification of Decision and NMP’s own project documents presents a more complicated picture.
“The marine ECC was issued on 5 August 2026 and is valid for three years. It authorises the listed marine activity within Mining Licence 170, but it does not constitute approval of the complete Sandpiper operation. NMP itself has stated that the granting of the ECC does not mean mining will commence immediately and that additional permitting for the terrestrial component remains outstanding,” Dr Kirchner said.
She added that separate terrestrial environmental assessments and clearance are still required, with substantial shore-based infrastructure to be approved, financed and constructed, and the marine ECC itself imposes additional environmental work before commencement.
Dr Kirchner said that this distinction matters because Sandpiper is not simply an offshore dredging operation.
“The proposed operation would use a trailing suction hopper dredger to recover approximately 5.5 million tonnes of phosphate-bearing seabed sediment annually. That material is not the final product. It must be transported as a seawater-rich slurry to Walvis Bay and processed on land to produce approximately three million tonnes of phosphate concentrate annually.
“According to the 2022 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), the shore-based operation would require a buffer pond receiving the slurry, a beneficiation plant and a tailings facility. The phosphate-bearing sand would be separated mechanically from shell material and fine sediment, followed by further processing, washing, drying and stockpiling before a saleable 27–28% P2O5 phosphate concentrate is produced.
Dr Kirchner further noted that without an approved and constructed shore-based receiving and beneficiation system, the dredged sediment cannot be converted into the product NMP intends to sell.
“NMP’s own ESIA states that permitting for both the marine and land components is required to secure funding for the proposed 24-month plant and site construction phase, after which operations and full-scale production could commence,” Dr Kirchner said.
She also said that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform has appealed against the Environmental Commissioner’s decision. Among its grounds, the Ministry argues that establishing the complete environmental baseline, identifying knowledge gaps, defining environmental thresholds and developing management measures are fundamental components of an environmental assessment and should not have been deferred until after an ECC was granted.
“That is now a matter for the appeal process and should not be prejudged. What can be established from the documentation is considerably less dramatic than much of the present public debate suggests.
“The marine ECC is an important regulatory milestone for NMP, but it is not approval of the complete Sandpiper project and does not by itself place the project in a position to commence full-scale commercial production. A separate terrestrial environmental assessment and clearance are still required, substantial shore-based infrastructure would have to be approved, financed and constructed, and the marine ECC itself imposes additional environmental work before commencement.
“The more useful question may therefore no longer be simply whether Sandpiper has received an environmental clearance,” Dr Kirchner concluded.
Picture for illustrative purposes only. Photo: Contributed
