Namibian miners say water shortages and outages over the past four years have significantly impacted uranium mines which rely on water from Orano’s desalination plant and supplied by NamWater.
According to the Chamber of Mines of Namibia, the disruptions stem from naturally occurring sulphur eruptions offshore causing temporary shutdowns of the desalination plant.
To protect their membranes from damage, the desalination plant undergoes temporary shutdowns, impacting the consistent water supply for the mines.
“As a result of these water supply disruptions, uranium production had been severely impacted, leading to extended periods of production stoppages and substantial revenue losses for the mining companies involved as well as loss of royalty and export levy to the government,” the Chamber of Mines said.
The miners’ concerns come as the Bank of Namibia (BoN)’s economic outlook in March projected a slowdown in uranium mining sector growth to 3.6% in 2024 from a robust 24.5% in 2023, attributed to water supply interruptions and mine adjustments.
Although uranium prices have surged in the past months as anticipated by market analysts since 2013, according to BoN, water supply interruptions and production adjustments at mines are still expected to hinder output.
“Despite increased spot prices, the sector is expected to experience water supply interruptions, resulting in uranium mines adjusting their production downwards, coupled with anticipated stripping activities at some of the mines,” BoN said in its Economic Outlook Update for March 2024
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Mines on Wednesday raised concerns on the current water supply and capacity highlighting that it is not sufficient to meet the needs of future mines and the expansion of existing ones, especially given the potential for growth in a rapidly improving uranium market.
“However, the Chamber has established that there is enough capacity at the Erongo Desalination Plant to satisfy the current water demand from existing mines, and expansion capacity to supply the oncoming uranium mines,” it said.
“The desalination plant also intends to curb water supply disruptions by increasing capacity with the installation of another column of membranes and NamWater constructing reservoirs to store sufficient water during the sulphur booms.
“The Chamber of Mines is working closely with its members, the Erongo Desalination Plant, and NamWater to ensure that current bottlenecks are addressed in the supply and distribution infrastructure to meet current needs and anticipated future demand,” the Chamber of Mines added.
