Debmarine Namibia’s N$7 billion new diamond recovery vessel, the Additional Mining Vessel (AMV#3), is set to be unveiled this month, eight months after it was officially handed over by Damen Shipyards Mangalia in Romania.
What we know about the vessel
The vessel, which is the world’s largest diamond recovery machinery, was constructed through co-funding from five banks, namely Nedbank, RMB, Standard Bank, Bank Windhoek and ABSA, with Debmarine Namibia covering 25% of the total project cost.
This translated into N$5.6 billion provided by the banks, representing 75% of the cost of the vessel and Debmarine Namibia financing the remaining N$1.4 billion.
The 177 metres long AMV3 will use state-of-the-art technology to optimise ocean floor diamond recovery, through sub-sea crawling extraction techniques to retrieve diamonds from the seabed, which will then be processed on board.
The vessel, set to become the new flagship, is the seventh ship in Debmarine Namibia’s fleet and its recovery equipment was built in parallel with the vessel construction.
The vessel is expected to operate for at least 30 years.
When it commences commercial operations, the AMV3 is expected to increase Debmarine Namibia’s production by about 500 000 carats, boosting its annual production by 35%.
The diamond recovery vessel is anticipated to contribute approximately N$2 billion in taxes and royalties per annum in addition to more than 160 jobs.
Last year Namibia’s diamond production marginally increased to 1.467 million carats, compared to 1.448 million carats produced in 2020, according to De Beers figures.
In the 12 months to December 2021, Debmarine produced the bulk of the country’s diamonds, churning out 1.137 million carats from its marine diamond operations, marginally up from the 2020 production figure of 1.125 million.
Debmarine Namibia is a subsidiary of diamond mining and jewellery company De Beers and is jointly owned with the Namibian government.
