Bulk Handling Terminal (Pty) Ltd (CBHT) is planning to construct and operate sulphuric acid storage facility at the Port of Walvis Bay to cater to the operational needs of Bannerman Energy’s Etango Mine.
Bulk Handling Terminal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bannerman Investments Namibia (Pty) Ltd and part of the Bannerman Energy Ltd Group.
The facility will have a storage capacity of 40,000 tonnes of 98% sulphuric acid and support the operational needs of the Etango Mine, which is estimated to have an annual requirement of approximately 150,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid.
The planned project includes the construction of four tanks to accommodate the sulphuric acid required for the Etango Mine.
“Infrastructure will be installed for transferring acid from shipping vessels or rail tankers into the storage tanks and for moving the acid from storage tanks to road tankers for transport to the mine,” according to documents seen by M&E.
Sulphuric acid will be sourced either locally or from abroad. It will be transported by rail or shipped to the Port of Walvis Bay and then delivered by road trucks to the Etango Mine.
Meanwhile, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will be conducted in compliance with the Environmental Management Act, 7 of 2007, and Regulation 21 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations.
CBHT is set to apply for an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism.
Alexandra Speiser of A. Speiser Environmental Consultants CC (ASEC) has been appointed as the independent Environmental Assessment Practitioner for the project.
This comes as Bannerman Energy has appointed Wood Plc to lead the detailed design phase of its flagship Etango uranium project in Namibia.
The collaboration builds on over a decade of support from Wood, including two feasibility studies and one pre-feasibility study a release by Wood plc indicated.
The Etango project is one of the largest undeveloped uranium assets globally, located within Namibia’s uranium mining sector.
The 2022 Etango-8 definitive feasibility study validated the viability of an eight million tons per year (Mtpa) throughput rate.
Based on a nameplate processing capacity of eight million tonnes a year, the Etango project is expected to have a mine life of 15 years, producing 52.6 million pounds of uranium oxide, averaging 3.5 million pounds of uranium a year.
The Etango-8 project is advancing toward a final investment decision, anticipated later this year.
