SWAKOPMUND MATTERS (3 – 2013)

Free translation of the leader article in the Allgemeine Zeitung of Namibia which brings perspective and drives home important points that the proponents of the Namibia Marine Phosphate (NMP) Sandpiper project are well advised to heed.

No study, no phosphate, Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 March 2013

“Make the impossible possible – trying Chris Jordinson, CEO of the Australian company UCL Resources Limited. According to him, the development of the Sandpiper Phosphate Project begin in July on the coast – and that, although to date no approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is present.

One might think that Jordinson’s interview with the financial news network FNN should only be used as an opportunity to gain confidence for the company, so that the prices of stocks rise (again). The goal he has achieved some. The shares of UCL are in fact fallen steadily since last October and were still in the past week to a record low. After the interview last Tuesday, the shares have risen by a few points. Jordinsons statements can hardly be taken seriously, because the probability that Sandpiper is developed within three months is equal to zero.

UCL fights like any other shareholder of the company Namibian Marine Phosphate Namibia (NMP) about taking a (very high) hurdle. To ultimately begin phosphate mining the seabed about the height of Meobbucht, but there must be a detailed and granted especially EIA. An initial study was completed within a record time for the then experts who were involved in it, it was impossible to determine the potential impacts of phosphate mining exactly. Several times mentioned during public meetings that these effects could be determined only after years of study. How can Jordinson expect a rapid development such as the environmental issue has to be re-opened?

Environment Commissioner Teofilus Nghitila had rejected the original environmental impact study in April 2012 at the company Namibian Marine Phosphates and this with “complaints about lack of transparency and Verfahrungsmängel” justified. Thus, to date there is no environmental assessment or other authorization. It also goes into the environmental lobby group Swakopmund Matters, which has in a letter to UCL in December 2012: “The Sandpiper project has to date by any Namibian authorities received an environmental report (…) It is unclear how the project with the erstwhile to be accelerated by the company Mawarid Mining. ”

Jordinson may sound confident. In TV he said during the interview that the first cargo phosphate (fertilizer) will leave Namibia in 2015. The ambition to help him but little, because NMP without an approved EIA (for land and sea), the commodity should not degrade. Instead of big words to screw the stock prices up, Jordinson should focus on the compilation of a detailed EIA. For even if UCL has all the money in the world can not do anything without the study”.

Erwin Leuschner

Swakopmund Matters
20 March 2013
(For Swakopmund Matters the environment of the Namibian coastline and its ocean matters)

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