Name of the Project
Sandpiper marine phosphate project.

Location
The project tenements lie in waters about 60 km off the coast of and 120 km south-west of Walvis Bay, in Namibia, and the granted mining licence (ML170) covers about 2 233 km² in water depths of 180 m to 300 m.

Project Owner/s
Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP) is a joint venture company owned by Mawarid Mining (85%), an Omani registered entity, and Havana Investments (15%), a Namibian registered entity.

Project Description
The project has total Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant reserves of 132.76-million tons grading 20.41% phosphorous pentoxide and mineral resources of 1.69-billion tons grading 18.94% phosphorous pentoxide.

A 2013 definitive feasibility study (DFS) confirmed Sandpiper as technically and economically feasible, and envisages steady-state production of three-million tons a year of phosphate rock concentrate product (rock phosphate) grading 27.5% to 28% phosphorous pentoxide over an initial mine life of 20 years, including a two-year ramp-up period.

Seafloor sediments will be dredged with a large-capacity trailing suction hopper dredge using current technology, contracted and operated by an international dredging company.

New technology is now available to enhance project operations and monitoring. In terms of dredging equipment, autonomous and remote-controlled underwater vehicles can be used to assist in positioning ships and to obtain environmental monitoring information over long periods without the need for expensive support vessels.

Potential Job Creation
The project is expected to create 400 to 500 jobs in the construction phase and 150 to 200 jobs when in operation. A number of indirect jobs and services will be required, which will be in addition to the above.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of N$4.9billion ($329-million) and an internal rate of return of 23.6%.

Capital Expenditure
Capital costs to first production for a three-million-tonne-a-year operation are estimated at N$5.4-billion ($362.7-million), according to the DFS.

Planned Start/End Date
Following a final investment decision and securing financing for the project, the estimated construction and commissioning period is 24 months.

Latest Developments
An environmental clearance certificate for the project was issued in September 2016 after completing public consultation, a formal application for environmental clearance (2012), an updated DFS (2013) and a N$14-million comprehensive environmental-impact verification study (2014).

Since then, despite a consensus of authoritative expert opinion that the proposed scale of activities would have no significant impact on the marine ecosystem or the Namibian commercial fishing industry, project development has been delayed by various legal actions initiated in November 2016, which are based largely on scientifically unsupported environmental objections.  

As a consequence of an appeal lodged in 2016, the project’s environmental clearance certificate was set aside in June 2018 by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to complete a further six-month period of consultation and evaluation with the public, the fishing industry, and the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. The process was completed in December 2018 and award of the certificate remains pending a decision from the Environmental Commissioner.

In 2019, NMP responded to certain recommendations put to the Environmental Commissioner by the appointed external reviewers of the further consultation process conducted in 2018. NMP completed and submitted two additional specialist environmental studies to the Environmental Commissioner as well as additional detailed information for consideration in the award of the environmental clearance certificate.

On  July 7, 2020, the legal challenge on the validity of NMP’s mining licence (ML170) by the Confederation of Namibian Fishery Associations (CNFA) and three others was heard in the High Court of Namibia, and NMP remains confident of a successful outcome.

It is expected that the legal proceedings will be concluded during the second half of 2020.

Meanwhile, the significant infrastructural and commercial developments at the Port of Walvis Bay have allowed for an adjustment to the project development plans and, specifically, the location of the proposed landing and onshore processing facilities. The revised development is situated within or close to the current planned industrial development areas within Walvis Bay.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) port allows for the dredger to enter the Port of Walvis Bay, and the SADC Gateway bulk terminal allows for offloading the dredged material and accessing the shore-based processing facilities, as well as shiploading and exporting the final product.

With regard to the proposed revised project layout:

• an application has been submitted and an in-principle approval has been received from Namport for the allocation of a land site within the SADC Gateway development for construction of the buffer pond facility to receive the offloaded bulk cargo (phosphate ore).
• an application has been submitted to the municipality of Walvis Bay for an allocation of land adjacent to the northern border of the SADC Gateway development for construction of the processing plant.
• an application has been submitted to the Ministry of Works and Transport for an allocation of land on the northern side of the heavy industrial development zone for the establishment of a tailing’s management facility and related servitude.

Site allocation for the revised project layout will be subject to completion of the statutory environmental clearance certificate application process, which is expected to take 12 months to complete.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Jan De Nul (dredging operations); Tenova Bateman (process engineering) and local Namibian contractors and service suppliers.

Contact Details for Project Information
NMP, tel +264 64 278150 or email info@namphos.com.