Fishing, phosphate mining can ‘coexist’

Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP) says the country should not have to choose between its fishing industry and a new marine phosphate industry, arguing that the two sectors can coexist if the environmental risks associated with seabed mining are properly understood and managed.

The company’s chief operating officer, Mike Woodborne, made the case for coexistence at the recent mining expo, just days before government approved the offshore component of NMP’s Sandpiper project within mining licence 170, about 120 km southwest of Walvis Bay.

His argument comes as the fishing industry has once more challenged the project, underscoring the central question that has followed Sandpiper for more than a decade – whether seabed phosphate mining and fishing can safely share Namibia’s marine environment.

Woodborne said NMP recognises the sensitivity surrounding the project and has subjected the major environmental concerns to extensive scientific investigation.

“In terms of the Sandpiper project itself, obviously there has been over the past years a high level of sensitivity around key aspects. And those have all been listened to and taken very seriously,” he said.

“They've been investigated by the best specialists available. And through that process, the risks are very well understood.

"And the management of those risks has been put to the test in terms of the expertise and the systems required to ensure that they can be managed effectively going forward.”

The assurance, however, is being tested by renewed resistance from the fishing industry.

In a letter dated 10 August, the Confederation of Namibian Fishing Associations, through lawyer Sisa Namandje, challenged the environment ministry over the environmental clearance certificate issued for the offshore component of Sandpiper.

The association also reminded environmental commissioner Timoteus Mufeti that the fishing industry was still waiting for a response to issues it had raised during the environmental assessment process that kicked off in 2022.

The intervention could set the stage for another legal challenge and has revived the long-running dispute over whether the environmental risks associated with phosphate extraction can be reconciled with the interests of Namibia’s fishing industry.

Sturdy controls

NMP's position is that coexistence is possible provided that mining is conducted within carefully defined environmental controls.

The company's October 2022 environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) acknowledges seabed disturbance as one of the effects of the proposed operation.

Sandpiper would use a trailing suction hopper dredger to recover phosphate-bearing sediments from depths of about 190 to 250 metres.

Under the initial SP1 mine plan, about 34 square kilometres of seabed would be disturbed over 20 years, averaging approximately 1.7 square kilometres annually.

The ESIA identifies the removal of benthic organisms (organisms that live on or in the ocean floor) from dredged sediment as an adverse impact of moderate significance and estimates that functional recovery could take between 10 and 20 years.

NMP's proposed mitigation measures are therefore central to its argument that the two industries can coexist.

Mining footprint

The company's environmental management plan requires at least 30 cm of the original phosphate-bearing sediment to remain above the underlying clay footwall. It also provides for undisturbed slivers of seabed to assist recolonisation, as well as benthic monitoring and pre- and post-dredging seabed surveys.

Information gathered during mining would, according to the company, be used to refine subsequent mining activities.

The environmental work supporting the project stretches back more than a decade, including investigations undertaken for the original 2012 environmental impact assessment and the 2014 marine verification programme requested by the fisheries ministry in consultation with the environmental commissioner.

Further baseline and socio-economic assessments were undertaken in 2020, while marine specialists Dr Robin Carter and Dr Nina Steffani examined issues including seabed disturbance, sediment plumes, toxicity risks and underwater noise.

Sediment plume modelling by UK-based HR Wallingford found that dispersion and redeposition from a single 16-hour dredging period could extend roughly one to five square kilometres beyond the immediate mining-plan area, while identifying a wider cumulative zone of influence over the proposed 20-year operation.

Untested model

Woodborne pointed to Namibia's own offshore experience as evidence that different marine industries do not necessarily have to compete for the same space.

“Namibia has demonstrated its ability to allow new projects to develop, to allow industries to coexist like fishing and diamond mining have over the years,” he said.

There is, however, an important distinction between marine diamond mining and Sandpiper.

Debmarine Namibia generally operates at shallower depths of about 90 to 140 metres and targets different seabed materials using different mining systems, while Sandpiper would operate at approximately 190 to 250 metres.

There is also no long-running commercial marine phosphate operation elsewhere that provides a direct operational precedent against which Sandpiper's environmental predictions can be tested.

Projects such as Chatham Rock Phosphate's proposed Chatham Rise development in New Zealand and the Don Diego project in Mexico did not reach commercial production after encountering environmental and regulatory opposition.

That makes Namibia's approach particularly significant, as Sandpiper would effectively test whether a commercial marine phosphate industry can be developed alongside an established fishing economy under a tightly controlled environmental regime.