Werner Menges
17 November 2008
AN EX-KOEVOET, a locked farm gate, a blocked access road and demands for tens of millions of Namibia dollars in compensation saw the relationship between an Usakos area farm owner and the Canadian-owned company planning a uranium mine on his land plunge to a new low point last week.
Dissatisfied with the monthly fee that would-be uranium mining company Valencia Uranium is paying him for the use of his land, farm owner Babie Horn last week took steps to lock employees and agents of the company out of his two farms southwest of Usakos.
On Friday, lawyers representing Valencia Uranium were in the High Court in Windhoek to get an urgent court order against Horn, forcing him to allow the company to again get access to his farms, Valencia and Gaudeamus, and to use a road across Valencia that leads to a neighbouring farm, Namibplaas, where the company is also exploring for uranium.
Horn was not notified of the company's court action beforehand - according to Valencia Uranium's General Manager, Jimmie Wilde, because he "has shown that he cannot be trusted and does not respect the law".
A Canadian company, Forsys Metals Corporation, is the owner of Valencia Uranium.
Forsys Metals Corp. also owns another Namibian company, Dunefield Mining Company, which holds an exclusive prospecting licence over farm Namibplaas.
In an affidavit forming the backbone of the urgent application before Judge Nate Ndauendapo, Wilde informed the court that Valencia Uranium and Horn have a written agreement in terms of which Horn gave the company rights of access to his farms for the purposes of prospecting operations.
There is also an agreement that access to Namibplaas would be via an existing road on farm Valencia, Wilde stated.
In terms of the agreement, Valencia Uranium agreed to pay compensation in an amount of N$3 000 a month to Horn for the use of his land.
The company has since agreed to pay increased monthly amounts of first N$7 000, then N$10 000, and ultimately N$20 000, to Horn, according to Wilde.
He stated that, after Valencia Uranium was granted a mining licence on August 20 this year, it had to negotiate a new compensation agreement with Horn before it would be allowed to start with its planned mining operations.
Attempts to negotiate such an agreement have not been a success, with Horn first demanding compensation in an amount if N$81 million and later proposing to sell part of farm Valencia to the company for US$3 million (about N$31 million), Wilde stated.
Valencia has offered to pay Horn compensation in an amount of N$1,183 million, plus a payment of N$2 million as a "goodwill gesture", the court was informed.
Wilde described Horn's demands as "manifestly unreasonable", and claimed that Horn "was using his right of ownership of the farm to extort more money" from Valencia Uranium.
He further claimed: "During the process of negotiation for a mining compensation agreement, and due to the frustration experienced by (Horn) not getting his way, (Horn) started to threaten (Valencia Uranium) with closure of gates and roads."
The alleged threats came to fruition on Monday last week, when Valencia Uranium employees found an access road between Valencia and Namibplaas barred and fenced.
They opened the road again, but on Tuesday, Horn was at the scene, again blocking the road, Wilde stated.
On Wednesday, Horn announced to Valencia Uranium employees that he was placing an armed guard, who he claimed was an ex-Koevoet member, in the area, and that anyone attempting to pass through to Namibplaas would be shot, Wilde claimed.
Wilde stated that "it is of primary importance that the legal order be restored, and that the legal order not be held ransom by renegade farm owners".
Judge Ndauendapo granted the company an interim order, valid until December 5, directing Horn to allow the company access to his farms again, and also authorising the Deputy Sheriff for the Karibib district, with assistance from the Police, to remove all armed guards from farm Valencia.
Valencia Uranium also had a courtroom clash in the High Court with the owners of another farm in the area of its proposed mine earlier this year.
In that case, the owners of a farm bordering on Namibplaas sued Valencia Uranium in an attempt to prevent the company from withdrawing large quantities of water from an ancient underground water source in the Khan River area without further studies on the size and sustainability of the subterranean reservoir having been done first.
The farm owners lost that case.
Lawyers Elise Angula and Wolf Wohlers, both of the law firm LorentzAngula Inc., represented Valencia Uranium in court on Friday.
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