Will Namdeb close down in the next three years?

The Namibian news service New Era (NE) interviewed NamDeb's CEO Riaan Burger, asking how long NamDeb has before the firm's "onshore resources" run out.

Burger said that the company, which has been mining diamonds since 1908, would have to close its mining operation at some point. "We have declining on-land reserves, but we also have opportunities. At the moment we can economically continue to operate for another two to three years - in terms of operational life. That's the plan. Then we have the mines closure in 2022."

Talking about the extent of the closures of operations Burger said: "We are constantly drilling, and our exploration team looks for new opportunities in our license areas. We know that we can potentially mine further but currently it's not economic to do that. We must also appreciate that Namdeb mines different types of ore bodies. We mine along the Orange River itself on the conventional on-land deposits, and there's some scope to extend the life from that. The other type of mining we do is actually coastal ocean along the beaches and what we call Mining Area 1. And there we have got an opportunity to extend our mining into the current surf zone of the sea to the shallow marine areas. We have already been doing this for years. That ore body extends into the sea and there's potential to mine that but it's a costly exercise and one need to get a few things correct to extend the life,'; he told New Era.  But he added that "again, as things stand, all these are currently not economic for us to continue mining."

Burger said the closure of the mining operations would severely impact Namibia's state coffers. "In the last seven years we have put over N$4 billion into the fiscus. From a fiscal point of view, we are one of the largest contributors to state coffers. Closure would be a hit on the economy. Our annual turnover is N$3 billion and on average 85 percent of that goes into the Namibian economy. This is a national asset for which we must find ways to prolong its lifespan,' Burger said.

Burger said that NamDeb has awhole team that is looking at closure, as well as a that deals with the post-mining rehabilitation. "Also, at how handle to the "transformation of the town of Oranjemund and how we are approaching it… we are transforming it, together with town council, into a community that is diversified, where people own property and so forth. That's where we are at the moment," he said.

Currently, Namdeb has four operations. "We have two mines along the Orange River; one is called Sendelingsdrif and the other one is called Daberas mine. Then we have the mainstay of our operations, which is Mining Area 1, or Southern Coastal Mines as we call it. It's a number of mines along the coast which have one processing plant - that makes up the bulk of our production. We also have the Elizabeth Bay mine, which is currently on care and maintenance. Sendelingsdrif and Southern Coastal Mines are scheduled for closure in 2022 and Daberas mine is scheduled to close down next year already," Burger told New Era.