Namibia Rare Earths a step closer to getting mining license
The Office of the Environmental Commissioner at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism issued Environmental Clearance Certificates to Namibia Rare Earth’s project, Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth, project which is located in the northern part of the country.
The company’s plan is to develop an 840,000 tonnes per annum open pit mining operation together with processing facilities, waste rock dumps and tailings storage facility to produce heavy rare earth concentrates.
The certificates, are required in support of the company’s Mining Licence application for Lofdal which is being processed by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
According to the Halifax-based company, the now-approved documents were submitted in June 2016 following an Environmental Impact Assessment carried out by SLR Environmental Consulting for an 18-month period.
Additionally, an environmental clearance was provided for the construction of a +/-40 km long 66kV overhead powerline from the national power grid with a parallel water pipeline to deliver power and water to the site. Provision has also been made to consider installation of a supplemental photovoltaic solar powerplant at site.
