When railway worker, Zacharia Lewala, discovered a diamond in 1908, he and those who became part of the diamond rush would not have envisaged that 114 years later, marine diamond production would overtake land-based production.
The inauguration of the N$7 billion vessel, Mv Benguela Gem by Debmarine Namibia last Friday marked the coming of age of a company that was formed 20 years ago and consolidated marine diamonds as Namibia’s top foreign exchange earner.
Debmarine Namibia is owned in equal shares by the government of Namibia and De Beers Group. The Mv Benguela Gem was custom built just like the MV SS Nujoma which was inaugurated in 2017. The vessel is designed to recover diamonds from Atlantic 1.
The development of the vessel has further strengthened Debmarine’s technological developments in the diamond recovery sub-sector.
“As one of Africa’s industry leaders, we have over the years developed and deployed state of art technology in our business,” Debmarine Namibia Chief Financial Officer Willy Mertens said.
Mertens said the new vessel is a culmination of a dream that started 10 years ago, which included answering the question whether the company had sufficient resources to grow production.
He said the inauguration of the state of the art, sampling, and exploration vessel, the Mv SS Nujoma was part of the vision of growing production.
“The SS Nujoma was actually part of that vision, the foundation for making today’s dream a reality.”
Debmarine’s diamond production has grown tremendously in the past 20 year to reach 1.1 million carats in 2021, the same figures as in 2020. This was due to lower demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the two major vessels undergoing planned maintenance in 2021.
Revenue increased by 9% in 2021 to N$7.2 billion mainly driven by improved market and trading conditions, with capital expenditure of close to N$6 billion in the past three years, reflecting the company’s confidence in the industry.
Debmarine Namibia CEO, Otto Shikongo, explained that both the SS Nujoma and the Benguela Gem are part of the Additional Resource Development Capacity Project.
“Six years of planning, three years of execution at a budget of N$7 billion. The vessel was delivered three months ahead of schedule, 17% under budget,” said Shikongo.
On her maiden diamond recovery operation, the vessel recovered 30 000 carats. It is the largest diamond recovery vessel built and is the largest vessel on the Namibian vessel’s registry. The vessel will create 160 high skilled jobs for Namibians and will produce around 500 000 carats annually, with revenue exceeding N$3 billion, making her the single biggest contributor to Debmarine Namibia and Namdeb Holding revenues.
The year 2005 was the turning point for marine diamond mining as production from marine resources overtook land production for the first time, making Debmarine Namibia the biggest diamond producer in Namibia with 922 000 carats.
The following year in 2006, a record production of 1 million carats were produced with a record production of 1.1 million recorded in 2014.
De Beers Group CEO, Bruce Cleaver describes the Benguela Gem as the world’s most advanced diamond recovery vessel. The vessel will commence operations this week, well ahead of its original schedule.
