Water a challenge for Namibia’s uranium mines

Water a challenge for Namibia’s uranium mines

Water supply to mines remains a concern in a water scarce country.  

With at least eight new uranium projects in various stages of development in Namibia, concerns about water constraints in especially the Erongo Region are growing.

Despite abundant rain earlier this year, the long-term impacts of a paralyzing drought over the last few years are still being felt across Namibia.

According to a recent article in the Namibian Sun, water scarcity and a surge in mining and industrial activity has pushed the Erongo Region’s water demand beyond the capacity of its existing supplies sources from two acquivers and the Orano (Erongo) desalination plant, which can produce up to 30 million cubic metres per year.

However, shutdowns at the desalination plant, for example because of offshore gas outbreaks, results in production stoppages and revenue losses for uranium mines in the area, which face a 500 cubic metre per hour deficit according to a report by the Chamber of Mines of Namibia.

Finding solution for a shortfall

Construction of a new desalination plant was scheduled for January this year, but it seems that the project is still caught up in pre-construction and financial closure. Initial expectations were that the plant would be in operation early in 2027 but, in all fairness that deadline seems to be a bridge to far.

In the meantime, the Chamber of Mines of Namibia has funded infrastructure upgrades including the rehabilitation of a 34km long pipeline, a bypass connection and a tenth reverse-osmosis column at the Orano/Erongo plant to add close to the 500 cubic metres per hour needed to keep the mines in production.

Mines like China National Uranium Corporation’s Rössing invested more than ND105-million to install six reservoirs to buffer operations for up to seven days during supply interruptions, shielding production from outages at the Orano plant.

New mines and the water challenge

New mines like Deep Yellow’s Tumas project coming online soon, has signed a water supply agreement with NamWater. Water will be piped from the Swakopmund reservoir via a 65km pipeline built alongside the C28 road to the project site.

In addition, Deep Yellow has already drilled six boreholes in the Tubas River paleochannel within the mining license area for activities like dust suppression and they plan to drill four more groundwater production holes.

Namibia’s uranium mines will rely heavily on desalinated seawater, pipeline infrastructure, on‑site storage, water recycling and efficiency measures to sustain operations.

According to the Chamber of Mines the following uranium projects are in the pipeline: Tumas (Deep Yellow); Engo Valley (Snow Lake Resources); Etango (Connected Minerals); Koppies (Elevate Uranium); Norasa (Forsys/Valencia); Trekkopje (Orano); Cobra (Madison Metals); Hertz Energy Prospecting

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Image: Pipline leading to the uranium mines in the Erongo Region of Namibia. Image credit: Leon Louw for WhyAfrica

Water a challenge for Namibia’s uranium mines