The proposed Koppies West uranium exploration project in the Erongo Region has entered its next phase, with the environmental clearance application now officially open for public participation.
The project, held under EPL 9657 by Marenica Ventures (Pty) Ltd, a Namibian subsidiary of Elevate Uranium, represents the newest addition to the company’s growing footprint in the Koppies uranium field.
Koppies West lies within the Namib-Naukluft National Park, roughly 80 kilometres northeast of Walvis Bay along the C14 road.
Although still categorised as an early-stage prospect, the licence is regarded as a strategic extension of Elevate Uranium’s established Koppies Project next door.
That project sits on one of the shallowest known calcrete-hosted uranium systems in the world, where 95 per cent of the current resource lies within about 15 metres of surface.
It is this shallow palaeochannel geology that Koppies West aims to investigate further.
According to the project documents, the proposed activities include desktop studies, field reconnaissance, geological mapping, soil and rock sampling, non-invasive geophysical surveys, and, if warranted, drilling using RAB, RC or diamond core techniques.
While the environmental application covers exploration only, the licence’s location inside a national park places additional emphasis on ecological safeguards and stakeholder consultation.
Koppies West is designed to test the western extension of the same arid-zone drainage and palaeochannel architecture that hosts uranium mineralisation at Koppies.
Regional studies suggest that the drainage channels extend across EPL 9657, potentially carrying the same shallow calcrete mineralisation that underpins the 66-million-pound combined resource already defined across Koppies and Hirabeb.
Exploration success at Koppies West would allow Elevate Uranium to evaluate a satellite or hub-and-spoke development model, using Koppies as the central processing node.
The public participation process follows Elevate Uranium’s broader momentum in Namibia. The company is advancing plans to commission a demonstration plant for its proprietary U-pgrade technology, intended to reduce processing costs for surficial uranium ores. Koppies West, if proven mineralised, could eventually contribute ore to that downstream pathway, strengthening Namibia’s position as a global supplier of new uranium projects.
Stakeholders, including residents, environmental groups and regional authorities, have been invited to comment on the proposed exploration activities.
The review period will include information sessions and opportunities for written submissions before the environmental consultant completes the final scoping report and submits it to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism for a decision.
For now, Koppies West remains an exploration prospect. But the opening of the public participation window marks the first formal step in assessing its potential to add further scale to Namibia’s emerging shallow uranium district in the Erongo Region.
In addition to the activities outlined in the application, Environmental Compliance Consultancy (ECC) has confirmed that the Koppies West environmental clearance submission was lodged during the second half of 2025 and is now listed on the ECC public portal as open for public participation.
While ECC does not publish specific opening or closing dates for the commenting period on the project page, the timing of the notice indicates that public participation began earlier in November and will remain open into December in line with Namibia’s Environmental Management Act, which prescribes a minimum twenty-one-day consultation window.
The period may extend slightly to accommodate the December calendar, after which ECC will compile the final scoping report and forward it to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism for a decision.
