Early Warning System

Regions

Africa
Middle East and North Africa

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Countries

Namibia
United Arab Emirates

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Specific Location

Karibib District, Erongo Region of Central Namibia; Khalifa Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi

Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.

Financial Institutions

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Proposed

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Mar 29, 2022

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

Lepidico Chemicals Namibia (Pty) Ltd

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Energy
Mining

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Amount (USD)

Not Disclosed

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Bank Documents

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ DFC website

Updated in EWS Jul 5, 2024

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Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated by the DFC, the Project involves the redevelopment of two brownfield open-pit lithium mines (Rubicon and Helikon 1) and the construction of a new 330,000 tpa ore processing plant to produce 60,000 tonnes of lepidolite concentrate in the Karibib District, Erongo Region of Central Namibia. Mining activities at Rubicon mine date back to the 1950s and at Helikon 1 to 1994. The
Sponsor is also developing an offshore chemical refinery which is not part of the use of proceeds but which as the sole offtake, is an associated facility of the Project. Located in the Khalifa Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi, the chemical refinery will process the entire 60,000 tonnes of concentrate and produce on average 4,900 tpa of lithium hydroxide, 1,400 tpa of rubidium sulphate and 200 tpa of cesium.

The Project will construct a new mine waste management facility for the co-disposal of mine waste and dry tailings from the ore processing plant. The Project will also construct a 30 km overhead transmission line for connection to the municipal grid, a raw water borefield, access roads, haul roads and support buildings as part of the mine infrastructure. The Project will lease existing facilities at the Port of Walvis Bay, Namibia for ore concentrate storage and marine transport to the Port of Khalifa, Abu Dhabi.

The DFC is providing assistance to prepare the environmental and social impact studies for the project.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

Investment information not provided at the time of disclosure.

Private Actors Description

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated on the company's website, Lepidico Chemicals Namibia (Pty) Ltd is a vertically-integrated lithium developer.

Private Actor 1	Private Actor 1 Role	Private Actor 1 Sector	Relation	Private Actor 2	Private Actor 2 Role	Private Actor 2 Sector
-	-	-	-	Lepidico Chemicals Namibia (Pty) Ltd	Client	Mining

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Location of Local Access to Project Information:

Karibib Address: Lepidico Chemicals Namibia Pty Ltd, Karibib Project, Rubicon Site Office, Karibib
Point of Contact: Ignatius Shaduka, Country Manager, +264 81 148 0937

Windhoek Address: ENS Africa, 11 Dr Agostinho Neta Road, Windhoek, Namibia
Point of Contact: Mr. Wolf Wohlers, Director (of ENS), wwohlers@ENSafrica.com, +264 61 379 700

UAE Address: Al Tamimi & Company, Al Sila Tower, 26th Floor, Abu Dhabi Global Market Square, Al Maryah Island
Point of Contact: Mr. Euan Lloyd, Senior Counsel, e.lloyd@tamimi.com, +971 2 813 0444

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Unlike many other development finance institutions, DFC does not currently have an access to information policy.

Under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), DFC is obliged to respond to reasonably formulated requests for Agency records. However, DFC may apply exemptions from release to certain types of information and may charge fees in responding to requests. DFC has a designated FOIA officer who is trained in how to respond to requests and implement the law. You can learn more about filing a FOIA request at: https://www.dfc.gov/foia

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION (DFC)

The Office of Accountability is an independent office that addresses complaints about environmental or social issues related to DFC-supported projects. The office provides communities an opportunity to have concerns independently reviewed and addressed. If you submit a complaint to the Office of Accountability, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a problem solving dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the DFC complied with its policies to prevent environmental, social, human rights, and labor harms.

You can find more information about the Office of Accountability at: https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are/office-accountability