The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources and that of Economics and Public Administration have advised the Namibian Marine Phosphate Company to be patient while waiting for its Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC).
 
The company said it re-applied for the ECC last year and has not received any feedback yet from the Environmental Commissioner.

The Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP) plans to start a seabed mining project in the country's ocean.

The proposed project is referred to as the Sandpiper Marine Phosphate Project.

Although NMP has a mining licence issued in 2012, environmental objections to the Sandpiper project have impeded progress; one such is not having an Environmental Clearance Certificate at the time.

The Chief Operation Officer at NMP, Mike Woodborne, says in 2016, they were awarded an ECC, which was immediately withdrawn.
 
"Since 2012, we have not been able to secure an ECC; it was awarded in 2016 but suspended immediately because of a court action. The court action was when the clearance was issued for mining; some associations challenged it, and that was held up in court from 2016 all the way to 2020."

Woodborne says they then invited a consultant to help with the ECC, which they submitted to the Environmental Commissioner in October last year.

However, they have not received feedback from the Environmental Commissioner regarding their application.

"The court found that the licence was valid, but we had to reapply for clearance from 2020 until now, and that process happened, and we employed the ECC consultant to do the application for us in accordance with the court's order that has been submitted and is now with the Environmental Commissioner."

"We did public consultation as per the environmental commissioner, and after that, we have been waiting for the decision from the ministry of environment for a long time for the ECC outcomes. We found it vital to speak to you about what the opportunities will be because the project has been overshadowed by a few people's concerns about fishing, and this is the same group of people who have been complaining since 2012, and they might be bais, says Jessica Bezeuidenhout from Environmental Compliance Consultancy.

NMP has also received opposition to its project from different stakeholders in Namibia, including concerned members of the public, civil society, environmental activists, labour unions, and the commercial fishing industry.

They say phosphate mining will have a negative impact on marine life and damage the seabed.

However, the NMP says they have done their research and environmental assessment and found marine life.