A RUSSIAN-OWNED company involved in controversial uranium exploration activities in the Leonardville area of the Omaheke region is complaining that it did not receive a proper hearing before its application for an exploration drilling permit was refused by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform in October last year.
The company, Headspring Investments, is alleging the refusal of its licence application was unfair and unreasonable, as it was not given an opportunity to make representations to the ministry before the decision was made.
The company is making this allegation in an affidavit filed at the Windhoek High Court, in support of an application to have the refusal of its bid for an exploration drilling permit reviewed and set aside.
Headspring Investments is a Namibian subsidiary of the Russian company Uranium One, which in turn is part of the Russian state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom.
Headspring Investments' uranium exploration activities in the Leonardville area have alarmed landowners and residents of the area, who are concerned that uranium mining could pollute the underground water resources of the Stampriet aquifer system.
According to the company, former mining commissioner Erasmus Shivolo informed Headspring Investments in September 2022 that its exploration drilling programme could go ahead.
That was a month after the mining commissioner had issued environmental clearance certificates allowing the company to undertake exploration activities in the areas covered by eight exclusive prospecting licences it held.
However, on 5 October last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform's executive director, Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata, informed Headspring Investments director Andrey Shutov in writing that the ministry would not be issuing an exploration drilling permit to the company.
In her letter to Shutov, Nghituwamata recorded that the Stampriet aquifer system is shared by Namibia, Botswana and South Africa and is jointly managed.
She also stated that the Stampriet aquifer system, where Headspring Investments' activities would be carried out, is categorised as highly vulnerable groundwater.
She continued that the company's exploration drilling and methods of sealing its planned boreholes "could seriously or permanently jeopardise the quality of the only supply of drinking water in the area".
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Noting that the company's application for an exploration drilling permit would eventually lead to mining activity involving a proposed underground leaching method, Nghituwamata stated that there is "sufficient evidence which establishes that there are possible serious threats of damage to the water quality".
She concluded: "Therefore, the ministry will not be issuing you with the exploration drilling permit".
Headspring Investments is claiming it was "afforded no opportunity whatsoever" to make representations to the ministry before its application for a permit was turned down.
The company is also claiming that the ministry infringed on its constitutional right to administrative justice.
The respondents cited in Headspring Investments' review application include 28 farm owners from the Leonardville area, Namibia's government, the ministers of agriculture, water and land reform, and of mines and energy, the mining commissioner, the environmental commissioner and the village councils of Leonardville and Aminuis.
A status hearing on the case filed by the company is scheduled to take place in the High Court tomorrow.
