Africa Mining: Namibia Rare Earths one step closer to getting mining license

Namibia’s Office of the Environmental Commissioner at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism issued Environmental Clearance Certificates to Namibia Rare Earth’s (TSXV:NRE) Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project, 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, which are valid for three years, are required in support of the Mining Licence application for Lofdal which, the miner says, is being processed by the Ministry of Mines and Energy since November 2016.

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. Baseline environmental studies and formal community consultations took place during that time.

In a press release, the Canadian junior also said that 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 site.