Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

system that allows other functions access and use of the data sets for
costing and mine planning. He said that the reconciliation aspect is
continuous, and that data management is extremely important because it
allows the integration of geology with production, with survey data and
above all with mine planning. He also said that in order to facilitate access
on a more rapid basis, De Beers’s management has direct satellite data
transfer links with vessels.
In terms of the future plans of De Beers Marine, Dr. Corbett said
that the vision is that the organization is going to lead the field of offshore
diamond exploration and mining forever. He said that De Beers strives to
improve in all aspects of its business. As an example, Dr. Corbett said that
De Beers considers it important to examine its waste products with a view
to eliminating as many of them as possible.
Dr Corbett said that De Beers Marine is a service industry. With
regard to diamond mining in Namibia, he described De Beers’ role as a
contractor/operator to NAMDEB that holds the offshore licences. He said
that initially when mining started, vessels came back and forth to port on a
monthly basis. He informed participants that the Debmar Pacific has
operated out at sea for 1,027 days on a continuous basis. He said that a
policy of De Beers Marine is that production vessels are on a two-year
cycle for maintenance. He described maintenance as an extremely
important aspect within the organization and said that rigorous processes
and procedures have been developed to avoid unnecessary down time.
In relation to the overall performance of De Beers, Dr. Corbett said
that from its initial tentative steps in 1990 when 29,000 carats of diamonds
were produced with great excitement, currently annual production is in
the region of half a million carats of diamonds per annum. He said that he
future would require further innovation particularly in mining systems
and mining system design. In this regard, he said that De Beers has
constructed different types of test facilities, which enable it to test fullscale
prototype systems onshore, and conduct scale model tests of the
different types of production systems.
Finally, Dr. Corbett touched on the prospects for employment in
countries where these developments might take place offshore. Noting
that many offshore mining developments might happen in the exclusive
economic zones (EEZ) of countries, Dr. Corbett said that he thought it
important to relate the impact of De Beers’s operations in Namibia on
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