By: Dwight Links
In a report by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Natural Resources, the committee indicated that a variety of factors hampered the second half of uranium exploration activities, where the In-Situ Recovery/Leaching(ISR/ISL) method was used in the Omaheke Region.
In their findings, the committee discovered that Headsprings Investments’ drilling permits were revoked by the former Ministry of Agriculture, Water & Land Reform, even though most of its paperwork with sister ministries of Environment, Forestry & Tourism and Mines & Energy were in order for the next phase.
“Most of the exploration diamond core drilling took place in the vicinity of Leonardville on 39 commercial farms, and a few drilling activities almost started in the communal area, around the time the company’s drilling permits were revoked in late 2021 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform,” shared the committee in Parliament.
The committee also acknowledged that the period between 2021 and 2025 had seen different ministers at the helm, along with the ministry’s name change.
Headsprings currently has eight exclusive prospecting licences (EPLs), which they have held since 2011. These licences are EPLs 4654, 4655, 4656, 4657, 6780, 6781, 6782 and 6783, and are predominantly in the Omaheke Region, with small portions falling in the Hardap and Khomas regions respectively.
According to the committee, their field visits to the Omaheke Region sought to establish the extent of various uranium exploration activities and why they may be at a standstill.
“The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources undertook a process to understand why Headspring Investments Rosatom’s drilling licence was abruptly withdrawn, and four years later, it is not being reissued, despite the investor investing close to N$1 billion in the exploration activities,” states the report.
Another player in the dispute that began in 2021 was a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) and commercial farmer lobby group known as the Stampriet Aquifer Uranium Mining Association (SAUMA).
“And an NGO that supports the closure of the project was founded around the same period the project was stopped and is supported mostly by the commercial farmers,” the report further outlines.
The committee established that this was because the commercial farmers were receiving millions in compensatory payments from Headsprings Investments’ exploration activities.
“The amount in compensation is in millions to the commercial farmers. This NGO continues to get preferential support from the then leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform,” revealed the committee.
SAUMA argued that exploration activity could lead to uranium contamination of the underground water source. The committee, however, observed that this was not the case as there was no evidence of said activity happening anywhere in the world.
“Their claims are that the aquifer will be contaminated by both the uranium exploration activities
and later mining. It must be said that the exploration activities are not importing uranium to come and deposit it on site or where it’s being found,” highlighted the committee.
Additionally, the report noted that uranium is a natural resource which has been in the Omaheke Region for
billions of years, “Just like it is in the Erongo Region. So, the radiation or high natural concentration is already there,” it noted.
The standing committee has designated that the potential uranium exploration taking place in the country forms part of the mainstream economic trajectory of Namibia, under the sixth National Development Plan (NDP 6).
The committee visited the uranium exploration site which caused an earlier dispute, and held various meetings in Windhoek and Omaheke with the regional governor, Rosatom and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The purpose of these meetings was for familiarisation and to ensure that Namibia’s natural resources are explored responsibly and in an environmentally sustainable manner benefitting surrounding communities and the nation as a whole. Reports on said meetings are yet to be released.
