The prospector of marine phosphate will have to wait a bit longer to hear whether their license has been renewed to enable them to mine offshore of Walvis Bay, Namibia.
The judgement which was due early next week has been postponed to 12 April because the judge is on long leave. But Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP) is prepared. They have everything in place to start up operations, even the staff they want to recruit.
Deep seabed mining is a controversial subject mainly because of the effects on ecosystems and biodiversity. Recently the WWF released a new report “In Too Deep: What We Know, And Don’t Know, About Deep Seabed Mining.”
The report argues that there are many unknowns and much to do in ocean science, policy and industry innovations before any deep seabed mining activities should be allowed to take place.
It’s not what Namibian Marine Phosphate wants to hear. Keen to harvest one of the largest undeveloped phosphate resources in the world, the company is adamant that by acting responsibly no harm will be caused to the marine environment. The commercial fishing industry disagrees.
There’s more to read here…
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