{{Israeli investment company Leviev Group (LGC) has plans to begin mining phosphate off Namibia’s coast by 2018}}<\/p>\n
LGC is planning to demonstrate a processing plant at the port of Luderitz \u2014 a harbour town in southwest Namibia. The project is being developed by LGC’s subsidiary, LL Namibia Phosphates, said the company.<\/p>\n
Phosphate is a major crop nutrient, along with potash and nitrogen. Reports have stated that environmental concerns have led the Namibian government to impose an 18-month freeze on new permits for marine mining. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, deep sea mining has opened new avenues as technology has paved the way for new resources that could replace depleted land mines.<\/p>\n
Erez Mishal, vice president of business development and operations at LGC, said, \u201dThrough a demonstration, we would address environmental concerns, allow full-scale construction to proceed so production can begin in 2018, and maybe even obtain a licence.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the Namibian cabinet had approved a recommendation in September 2013 that a moratorium on issuing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) clearance certificates on bulk seabed mining \u2014 for industrial minerals, base and rare metals \u2014 in Namibian waters, be in place for a minimum of three years, stated reports.<\/p>\n
LGC has estimated that it can mine two million tonnes of phosphate rock per year, at a depth of 300 metres.<\/p>\n
The company added that it would provide finances worth US$20mn in the preliminary stages, and then seek an industry partner for complete development that would cost US$800mn.<\/p>\n
LGC is touting the project as offering the lowest phosphate rock production costs in the world at a projected US$16.61 a tonne, supported by an acid-based processing technique that reduces the need to remove impurities first from the rock, added reports. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Israeli investment company Leviev Group (LGC) has plans to begin mining phosphate off Namibia’s coast by 2018}} LGC is planning to demonstrate a processing plant at the port of Luderitz \u2014 a harbour town in southwest Namibia. The project is being developed by LGC’s subsidiary, LL Namibia Phosphates, said the company. Phosphate is a major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000051659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[100],"byline":[334],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-africa","byline-igihe-reporter"],"bylines":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000051659,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13885.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13885.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13885.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13885.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13885.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13885.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000051659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13885"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13885"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}