CHAMWE KAIRA
The draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Scoping Report and the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for the Cooperative Bulk Handling Terminal (Pty) Ltd (CBHT), in the port of Walvis Bay has been finalised and is ready for the public review, documents have shown. CBHT will offer services to Bannerman Resource’s Etango uranium project.
The project includes a proposed sulphuric acid storage and handling facilities in the Port of Walvis Bay. The Etango uranium project is located on the Mining Licence 250 (ML 250), which was granted by the Ministry of Mines and Energy on 14 December 2023.
The Etango mine’s annual requirement of 98% sulphuric acid is in the order of 150 000 tonnes per annum. This will amount to 14 road tankers daily from the CBHT Facility in the port of Walvis Bay to the Etango Mine.
The sulphuric acid will either be sourced from a local Namibian supply or from abroad, either transported by rail within Namibia or shipped by vessels to the port and decanted into the storage tanks in the port. From there, it will be transported via road tankers to the mine.
The facilities to be provided in the port include the storage capacity of 40 000 tonnes of 98% sulphuric acid in four tanks.
Documents further show that related infrastructure for the transfer of acid into the storage tanks from shipping vessels or rail acid tankers.
Related infrastructure to transfer acid from the storage tanks to acid road tankers for transporting of the acid to the Etango Mine will be needed including related infrastructure for safe operation of all facilities.
Plans include ensuring that all necessary permits from the various ministries, local authorities and any other bodies that govern the operations and construction activities of Namport and the port tenants are obtained and remain valid throughout project execution.
“These include permits from the Ministry of Mines and Energy for fuel handling and storage and effluent disposal permits from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry.”
The Etango Project is one of the world’s largest undeveloped uranium deposits, located in the Erongo uranium mining region, which hosts the Rössing, Husab and Langer Heinrich mines. The company has already obtained all necessary environmental and heritage approvals based on environmental baseline monitoring and studies commenced 12-years ago. The pre-production capital forecast for Etango is US$353 million.
Bannerman believes that developing the world-class Etango Project at an initial 8 million tonnes per annum throughput scale is its core focus. The long-term scalability of the world-class Etango resource remains highly robust under the base case Etango approach to initial project development.
The study found that mine and plant throughput expanded to 16 million tonnes per pound with a Life of Mine of 16 years.
