Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

as far as the development of mineral resources is concerned, the trend since
the 1990s is for their development to be in the form of partnership between
foreign investors and locally owned entities. She said that is in this context
that the joint partnership between the Government of Namibia and De Beers
evolved. She said that diamond exploration attracts the greatest interest and
for entities interested in marine minerals development, and that the whole
coastline is dotted with various licenses. With regard to the types licenses
issued by the Government of Namibia, Ms Zaamwani said that the only two
types of licenses are issued. These are prospecting and mining licenses. She
also said that under the license, prospecting includes exploration.
Through the use of a slide, Ms. Zaamwani showed participants marine
diamond concessions off the coast of Namibia. These she said, extended all
the way up to Meob Bay, which is the northern port of Namibia. She also said
that the bulk of the concessions are owned by NAMDEB, and that a few of
them belong to another company, a NASDAQ listed company called
NAMCO.
Through the use of other slides, Ms. Zaamwani showed illustrations of
the types of barges that were first used to mine diamonds offshore Namibia.
She pointed out that the first barge used by Sammy Collins was a
converted submarine pipe-laying rig.
As concerns the technology used then, she said barges were equipped
with a 30 cm airlift feeding a 30-tph-recovery plant on board the barge Since
then, Ms Zaamwani said that those types of barges have been replaced by
more conventional types of vessels adapted to offshore mining.
Ms. Zaamwani informed participants that twenty-three exploration
and mining vessels operate in Namibia’s territorial waters and its Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ). She said that De Beers Marine owns the majority of
vessels. She also said that De Beers Marine works under contract for
NAMDEB. Ms. Zaamwani informed participants that NAMDEB has been
mining diamonds for over 75 years essentially onshore. She said that its
expertise and core competency is in onshore operations, where it mines large
alluvial deposits and operates one of the largest earth-moving fleets in the
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 774