Ai-Ais exploration faces legal test

A group of landowners has launched an urgent High Court application to stop uranium exploration near Ai-Ais in the //Karas Region, challenging every major government approval that enabled exclusive prospecting licence (EPL) 8125 to proceed.

The applicants are asking the court to review and set aside the Environmental Clearance Certificate, the renewal of the prospecting licence and the decision granting the licence holder access to their farms, arguing that all three administrative decisions were unlawful and inconsistent with Article 18 of the Namibian Constitution, which guarantees lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair administrative action.

The case centres on EPL 8125, a prospecting licence covering approximately 69,586 hectares across the farms Soutkuil, Bobbejaankrans, Wegdraai, Kochas and part of Mara near Ai-Ais. The licence was initially granted on 15 February 2021 and later renewed by the minister of industries, mines and energy on 3 December 2025.

The area is prospective for uranium and other minerals and lies on privately owned commercial farmland adjoining the wider Ai-Ais landscape, where farming, tourism and conservation coexist.

Before exploration could begin, the licence holder obtained an Environmental Clearance Certificate on 5 February 2025, authorising prospecting activities including geological mapping, soil and rock sampling, geophysical surveys, trenching and drilling.

However, the landowners argue that the approvals allowing those activities to proceed should never have been granted.

The application seeks to review the Environmental Commissioner's decision to issue the Environmental Clearance Certificate, the minister's decision to renew EPL 8125 and the Minerals Ancillary Rights Commission's (MARC) decision allowing the licence holder to enter the farms to exercise its rights under the prospecting licence.

According to the notice of motion, the applicants seek to have all three decisions declared invalid and set aside on the grounds that they conflict with Article 18 of the Constitution.

The applicants have cited the Environmental Commissioner as the first respondent, the minister of industries, mines and energy as the fourth respondent, the holder of EPL 8125 as the fifth respondent and the Chairperson of the Minerals Ancillary Rights Commission as the sixth respondent.

The dispute intensified after the MARC reportedly granted the licence holder permission, on or about 5 June 2026, alternatively 9 April 2026, to enter the affected farms in the Bethanie district to carry out activities authorised under the prospecting licence.

Fearing exploration could begin before the legality of the approvals is determined, the landowners have also approached the court on an urgent basis for interim relief.

They want the court to suspend the MARC decision pending the outcome of the review application and interdict the licence holder, or anyone acting on its behalf, from entering the farms or conducting any prospecting or exploration activities within the EPL area.

In addition, the applicants seek an order preventing the MARC from considering any further applications for ancillary rights relating to EPL 8125 until the review proceedings have been concluded.

As part of the review, the applicants have also requested that the Environmental Commissioner, the minister and the MARC produce the complete administrative records and reasons underlying their respective decisions.

Those records would enable the applicants to scrutinise the decision-making process and, if necessary, amend or supplement their review application once the documentation has been disclosed.

The landowners bringing the application are Timothy Michael Yates, Margaret Dulany, Simon Leonard Le Roux, Andreas Kinghorn, Patricia Craven, Dan Craven, Myra Craven, Natacha Batault, Henriette Potgieter and Morgan Hauptfleisch.

They are represented by Koep and Partners Incorporated, trading as Bowmans.

Although the case arises from a single prospecting licence near Ai-Ais, its implications could extend well beyond southern Namibia.

If the High Court agrees to review and set aside the approvals, the judgment could establish an important precedent on how environmental clearances, prospecting licence renewals and ancillary access rights are granted where mineral exploration intersects with private land ownership and environmentally sensitive areas.

The applicants are also seeking a costs order against the Environmental Commissioner, the minister of industries, mines and energy, the holder of EPL 8125 and the MARC should they oppose the application.