Namibian Marine Phosphate
Namibian Marine Phosphate holds mining licence ML 170 over 2,233 km² of seabed about 120 km southwest of Walvis Bay, where it proposes to dredge phosphate-bearing sediment from 200 to 250 metres of water. The project has been fought by Namibia’s fishing industry and environmental groups for more than a decade.
Namibia’s Environmental Commissioner granted it an environmental clearance certificate for the marine component on August 6, 2026, valid for three years. That is not permission to mine: a separate assessment and certificate are still required for the onshore part, and the company says no immediate operations are planned.
The certificate is under appeal to the environment minister. The fisheries minister, Inge Zaamwani, lodged an appeal on September 2, 2026, asking for the decision to be set aside in its entirety. The opposition Independent Patriots for Change lodged a separate appeal on August 10, 2026, and the Confederation of Namibian Fishing Associations has also challenged it. No ruling on the appeals had been reported by October 7, 2026.
News and articles
Overview
- Registered in Namibia in October 2008 and headquartered at Walvis Bay. The shareholders agreement followed in July 2010.
- Mining licence ML 170 was granted on July 13, 2011, for a twenty-year term, adjudicated by a panel drawn from the mines, environment, fisheries and finance ministries.
- The deposit is large. Reported reserves are 132.76 million tonnes at 20.41% phosphate, and resources 1,687.75 million tonnes, both to the Australian reporting code.
- The plan is to recover 5.5 million tonnes of sediment a year with a trailing suction hopper dredger and produce 3 million tonnes of concentrate at 27% to 28% phosphate. The dredging contractor Jan De Nul has been engaged since June 2011.
- The twenty-year mine plan works only 34 km² inside one target block, a small fraction of the licence.
- Permitting has been the whole story. A clearance certificate was issued on September 5, 2016, and set aside within weeks; the High Court set that withdrawal aside on May 11, 2018; the mining licence was declared valid on June 30, 2021, with an order to reapply.
- A fresh marine assessment was filed on October 31, 2022, drawing on 28 specialist studies and 37 independent specialists, with 133 interested parties registered. The environment ministry accepted it for review on November 24, 2024.
- The certificate followed on August 6, 2026. The company’s own roadmap places it at the approvals stage, with roughly a year of approvals and two years of construction still ahead of any production.
- The company is not the only holder of a marine phosphate mining licence over the defined resource area. A second licence, ML 159, is held by another company.
Sandpiper
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Licence | ML 170, granted July 13, 2011, for twenty years |
| Area | 2,233 km², with a twenty-year mine plan over 34 km² inside target block SP1 |
| Location | ~120 km southwest of Walvis Bay, nearest licence edge ~40 km offshore |
| Water depth | 180 to 300 m across the licence, with dredging planned at 200 to 250 m |
| Resource | 1,687.75 Mt, being 79.75 Mt indicated at 19.82% phosphate and 1,608.00 Mt inferred at 18.90%, at a 15% cut-off |
| Reserve | 132.76 Mt at 20.41% phosphate, being 54.07 Mt proved at 20.83% and 78.69 Mt probable at 20.12% |
| Method | A trailing suction hopper dredger recovering 5.5 Mt of sediment a year to produce 3 Mt of concentrate at 27% to 28% phosphate |
| Status | Marine environmental clearance certificate granted August 6, 2026, valid three years, and under appeal to the environment minister. Onshore assessment and certificate still required. Not in operation. |
The company also holds exploration licences over a further 2,234 km² of seabed and prospecting licences over 3,800 km². Two further target blocks inside ML 170 carry phosphate but are not in the current plan. A separate project at Rocky Point, north of Walvis Bay, is held by its parent rather than by this company.
The permitting fight
This is a contested project and the record runs in both directions. The dates below come from the company’s own releases and from the independent assessment practitioner.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2013 | The fisheries minister proposed an eighteen-month moratorium on clearance certificates for bulk seabed mining of industrial minerals, and the cabinet supported it. It was never formally gazetted. |
| 2013 to 2014 | A verification study ran across three marine surveys with fisheries ministry staff aboard and a university observer, followed by independent international peer review. |
| 2015 | The moratorium was lifted. |
| Sept. 5, 2016 | The Environmental Commissioner issued a clearance certificate for ML 170. |
| November 2016 | The environment minister moved to set the certificate aside within weeks of its grant, after opposition from the fishing industry confederation and the fisheries ministry. |
| May 11, 2018 | The High Court of Namibia ruled the withdrawal was no decision at all and set it aside. |
| June 30, 2021 | A court confirmed the validity of the mining licence, with an order to reapply for clearance. |
| Oct. 31, 2022 | A fresh marine assessment was submitted, with 133 interested parties registered and 44 commenting. |
| Nov. 24, 2024 | The environment ministry accepted the application for review. |
| Aug. 6, 2026 | The Environmental Commissioner granted the marine clearance certificate, valid three years. |
| Aug. 10, 2026 | The Independent Patriots for Change appealed the certificate to the environment minister, and the fishing industry confederation demanded the commissioner explain the decision. |
| Sept. 2, 2026 | The fisheries minister, Inge Zaamwani, appealed the certificate to the environment minister, challenging the decision in its entirety and every condition attached to it. |
The company’s own assessment does not claim the project is harmless. Its post-mitigation ratings leave two moderate residual impacts, on the fishing industry and on the loss of seabed communities, and it concedes the licence overlaps in part with commercial fisheries. The fishing industry’s case has been that dredging would damage a nursery area for hake and other stocks, and that the science was incomplete.
The company argues that Sandpiper is not a deep sea mining operation, which is a notable position given that its ultimate owner also holds half of the vehicle that took the assets of Nautilus Minerals.
Ownership
| Holder | Stake | As reported in |
|---|---|---|
| Mawarid Mining (Namibia), wholly owned by Mawarid Mining LLC of Oman | 85% | Ministerial briefing, September 2025, and the 2022 assessment, both agreeing with the company’s current site |
| Havana Investments, a Namibian company | 15% | Ministerial briefing, September 2025 |
The chain has changed hands completely. The venture began with the Australian companies Union Resources and Minemakers holding 42.5% each alongside a 15% Namibian partner. Minemakers sold its interest in Sandpiper, together with 70% of the Rocky Point project, to the Omani buyer for ~A$25 million, announced on October 4, 2012, and completed that December. Union Resources, later renamed UCL Resources, came off the register between March 2018 and February 2019. What it was paid is not public.
Listed exposure
There is none. Both shareholders are private, the ultimate owner is an Omani private company, and neither of the two Australian listed companies that founded the venture retains any interest in it. There is no listed security through which the Sandpiper project can be held.
Documents
Earlier documents (2 documents)
| Year | Document |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Scoping report (PDF) |
| 2014 | Independent peer review report (PDF) |