Namibia's Namdeb Aims to Extend Marine Mining With New Technology

(IDEX Online News) – The Namdeb Diamond Corp unit Debmarine is closer to creating new technology to allow it to mine marine deposits in mid-water depths, said Namibia Country Manager Daniel Kali.

Namdeb Diamond Corp., owned by De Beers parent company Anglo American and the Namibian government, mines off Namibia’s coast at depths of 90-140 meters. It is working on technology to enable it to mine diamonds in rocky and difficult underwater areas, and also to extend operations to beyond 2050, Kali said.

“Mining in the mid-waters is premised on making a breakthrough in technology to exploit those deposits,” Kali told Bloomberg News. “Some interesting work has been done but we haven’t reached a level where the researchers can say they are satisfied.”

Namibia’s Atlantic coast area is estimated to contain 80 million carats of diamonds, according to De Beers. Debmarine contributed 1.16 million carats to Namdeb’s 1.76 million carats produced in 2013.

“There is still tremendous work required to define the scope and appropriate technology for the mid-water deposits,” the reports cited Pauline Thomas, a spokeswoman for Namdeb, as saying. “The process of developing technology is ongoing, and various models and options are being considered.”