Prior to the commencement of the expansion project, authorisation is required in terms of the Environmental Management Act, 7 of 2007. Although the proposed EIA regulations have not yet been promulgated in a final form, the draft regulations and Namibian Environmental Policy for EIA (1995) have been used as a guideline where relevant. In this regard, a project specific environmental impact assessment (EIA) is required as part of the application for authorisation for new mining and beneficiation related activities. The EIA comprises two key phases: the scoping/baseline phase and the environmental impact assessment (EIA)/ environmental management programme (EMP) phase.