The National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has given the firm 30 days to confirm that it would comply with a raft of conditions before it is granted a basic licence for the Sh12.8 billion plant.
If the firm confirms it will abide by the 40 conditions, which include installing a waste water treatment facility, it would be issued with an environmental impact assessment licence. Without the licence any developments on the site would be illegal.
Cortec Mining (K) Ltd, which plans to set up a rare earths processing plant at Mrima Hill in Kwale County, will not be licensed until it fully compensates land owners.
Cortec announced last week that it had confirmed niobium deposits worth Sh5.6 trillion in one of Kenya’s poorest counties, just off the Indian Ocean coast. The company is in partnership with Pacific Wildcat Resources of Canada.
The National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has given the firm 30 days to confirm that it would comply with a raft of conditions before it is granted a basic licence for the Sh12.8 billion plant.
“The proponent shall legally acquire the proposed piece of land at Mwabovo near Mrima Hills and ensure that all the land owners are adequately compensated before implementation of the project,” Nema director for compliance and enforcement Michael Langwen said in a letter dated July 8.
If the firm confirms it will abide by the 40 conditions, which include installing a waste water treatment facility, it would be issued with an environmental impact assessment licence. Without the licence any developments on the site would be illegal.
“This licence that will be valid for 24 months shall not be taken as statutory defence against charges of environmental degradation or pollution,” Mr Langwen said.
Compensation, health, and environmental concerns inform most of the conditions that will require the firm to have adequate resources - personnel and capital - to comply with.
Mr Langwen said the investor should put in place measures to ensure that radionuclides are immobilised within the processing plant to reduce radioactivity to natural levels in the area.
The requirement that it compensates land owners fully could delay the project for several years going by the activism that surrounds land acquisition for mining purposes in Kenya.
Titanium miner Base Titanium, also in Kwale, is yet to move to production more than ten years after the discovery was announced after grappling with compensation claims for years.
Already the county government and the National Land Commission have questioned Cortec’s rights to the land and the acreage involved. The commission said Cortec had not made an application for the land.
