RE:This is more of a concernI emailed Reco about these claims and this is what Doug Allen sent back. It is reassuring.
"Further to your question below as you may have also seen, the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism issued a statement on Friday (attached to this email) confirming that in fact our
Environmental Impact Assessment was approved by the Ministry, and ReconAfrica was in fact issued an
Environmental Clearance Certificate(ECC) in August 2019, for our upcoming exploratory drilling program. The issuance of the ECC followed a stakeholder consultation process in Spring 2019.
So we do in fact have the permit to proceed with the drilling campaign that is set to spud in December.
In terms of our approach to permitting and community engagement, I note the following:
· We have and will continue to actively engage with the local communities in which we operate
o We have a strong local hire and local training policy
· We always have strict adherence to regulations and to environmental best practice
o We plan no drilling in environmentally sensitive areas
o Local ecosystems will be protected
In addition we have just posted a FAQ sub-tab on our website (
here) that you may find useful."