Headspring EIA up in the air
Stakeholders who registered as interested or affected parties to the Headspring Investments exploration project in the Stampriet aquifer were surprised to receive an email from Namibian consulting firm, Environmental Compliance Consultants (ECC), on Tuesday evening.
According to the email, ECC has terminated its contract with Headspring.
The firm had been contracted by Headspring to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the proposed mining of uranium through the use of the in-situ leaching process.
This would need to be done in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Management Act, with the goal of obtaining an environmental compliance certificate from the state.
"The ECC termination is of course quite astonishing, especially since this seems to be the second Namibian company that has stopped working with Headspring," Tanja Dahl, speaking on behalf of the Stampriet Aquifer Uranium Mining Association, said.
Farmers are "obviously concerned about this development”, she added, further asking: “Who is going to be tasked with doing an EIA now?"
Dahl questioned what would happen to the information gathered so far, adding that such data would be crucial for the completed assessment.
She added that the information spanned more than 60 pages.
"The public is concerned about where this is going now, and farmers are insisting on more transparency."
Not sudden
Confirming that the company had given notice on its contract, ECC’s Stephan Bezuidenhout made it clear that the gathered information belongs to the contracting authority, Headspring.
Meanwhile, Headspring’s media liaison Riaan van Rooyen said “ECC was appointed to conduct environmental and social impact assessments”, and that the termination “was by mutual agreement".
The termination had not occurred suddenly, he said, but “was agreed to after a series of meetings”.
Van Rooyen made reference to a passage in ECC’s email, which read: "ECC completed a detailed round of public consultations for this project and prepared a draft scoping report. ECC also prepared detailed terms of reference for a specialist groundwater study – the most important and controversial component of the proposed in-situ leaching uranium mining.
“Irreconcilable differences arose between ECC and Headspring Investments, resulting in ECC formally withdrawing their professional environmental consulting services from the project and the proponent".
Replaced
According to him, the termination dates back to the beginning of August. This should explain why no representative from ECC participated in a recent trip to Kazakhstan when journalists had been invited by Headspring to visit sites in that country to better understand the leaching process, he said.
However, because media representatives were prohibited from creating audio-visual material on site, the trip was not able to grant the insight many had hoped for.
Van Rooyen further said EcoWise would now conduct the consultation with the aim of advancing an EIA and social impact assessment for the project.
According to the email, ECC has terminated its contract with Headspring.
The firm had been contracted by Headspring to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the proposed mining of uranium through the use of the in-situ leaching process.
This would need to be done in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Management Act, with the goal of obtaining an environmental compliance certificate from the state.
"The ECC termination is of course quite astonishing, especially since this seems to be the second Namibian company that has stopped working with Headspring," Tanja Dahl, speaking on behalf of the Stampriet Aquifer Uranium Mining Association, said.
Farmers are "obviously concerned about this development”, she added, further asking: “Who is going to be tasked with doing an EIA now?"
Dahl questioned what would happen to the information gathered so far, adding that such data would be crucial for the completed assessment.
She added that the information spanned more than 60 pages.
"The public is concerned about where this is going now, and farmers are insisting on more transparency."
Not sudden
Confirming that the company had given notice on its contract, ECC’s Stephan Bezuidenhout made it clear that the gathered information belongs to the contracting authority, Headspring.
Meanwhile, Headspring’s media liaison Riaan van Rooyen said “ECC was appointed to conduct environmental and social impact assessments”, and that the termination “was by mutual agreement".
The termination had not occurred suddenly, he said, but “was agreed to after a series of meetings”.
Van Rooyen made reference to a passage in ECC’s email, which read: "ECC completed a detailed round of public consultations for this project and prepared a draft scoping report. ECC also prepared detailed terms of reference for a specialist groundwater study – the most important and controversial component of the proposed in-situ leaching uranium mining.
“Irreconcilable differences arose between ECC and Headspring Investments, resulting in ECC formally withdrawing their professional environmental consulting services from the project and the proponent".
Replaced
According to him, the termination dates back to the beginning of August. This should explain why no representative from ECC participated in a recent trip to Kazakhstan when journalists had been invited by Headspring to visit sites in that country to better understand the leaching process, he said.
However, because media representatives were prohibited from creating audio-visual material on site, the trip was not able to grant the insight many had hoped for.
Van Rooyen further said EcoWise would now conduct the consultation with the aim of advancing an EIA and social impact assessment for the project.
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