Diamond in the river mouth

Augetto Graig - Oranjemund has been home to Namdeb since before 1943, when its predecessor, Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM), moved its headquarters there. In the forbidden desert of the ‘Sperrgebiet’, the town grew from a diamond mineworker’s camp, founded in 1928. It is in this little coastal town where the iconic Namibian diamond miner will leave its legacy if its latest life-of-mine projection comes to spell the end of the decades-old love affair.

Polishing a town

According to Namdeb spokesperson Shangelao Ndadi, in 2017, as a result of challenging market conditions, Namdeb reduced its life-of-mine expectation and mine closure was scheduled for 2022.

“The company has since been looking at various opportunities that can secure a longer and more a sustainable business plan,” she adds.

“As part of our positive legacy, Namdeb seeks to transform the town of Oranjemund into a self-sustaining town, less reliant on Namdeb and creating sustainable economic activities,” she says.

With the proclamation of the town in 2012, the Oranjemund town council OTC began taking over the responsibility for running municipal services that were previously provided by Namdeb, Ndadi explains.

“Namdeb has been working hand-in-hand with other partners to ensure a self-funding and -sustainable town with a diversified economy. Although the transformation process is not an easy one, the formal opening of the town in October 2017 signified a new era and new possibilities in line with the town’s vision to thrive beyond mining. In support of further normalisation of the town, Namdeb and OTC continue to seek all stakeholders’ support in our endeavour for economic diversification of the town and its people. To this end, the OMDis town transformation agency was formed in 2019, after five years of thorough research, stakeholder engagement and piloting projects,” she says.

The OMDis is an independent Special Purpose Vehicle, with the sole purpose of business and economic development opportunities for the town, according to Ndadi.

“The goal of the agency is to safeguard the town’s economic future beyond mining. This will be done by supporting existing businesses to become more sustainable, developing new SMEs and entrepreneurs, and creating new large industry platforms that can support the economy,” she says.

Reinventing diamond mining

Meanwhile, Namdeb is hard at work carving out its new way forward.

“In spite of being an old mining operation, Namdeb has been able to reinvent itself numerous times by introducing new technologies and expanding its prospecting activities within its licence areas. The bulk of its current operations now involve the extension of mining into the shallow marine environment through the reclamation of land and mining of accreted beaches,” says Ndadi.

“We recognise that the success to extend the life-of-mine and to materially increase our annual production with a reduced operating cost lies in a combination of lean operations and improvements in technology, which is why Namdeb continues to explore innovative ways to improve our understanding of our mineral resources and to develop methods to profitably and sustainably mine these areas.

“Through Namdeb’s Mineral Resource and Strategic Projects teams, we were able to establish ongoing investment in resource development in the ultra-shallow, shallow and midwater deposit areas. We could expand and optimise our beach accretion systems to create more sustainable and longer-term mineable areas, and introduce more cost-effective waste stripping and bedrock cleaning systems,” she says.

“In addition to the innovations mentioned above, we also continue to pursue renewable energy initiatives such as wind, solar and solar water heaters.”

After the sale of the Elizabeth Bay mine near Lüderitz in 2019, Namdeb’s main land-based operations are now along the coastline near Oranjemund, as well as satellite operations along the Orange River. The Southern Coastal Mines (SCM) is situated within Mining Licence 43 on the south-western coast of Namibia. Previously known as Mining Area 1 (MA1), SCM stretches from the Orange River at Oranjemund to Chameis Bay, about 100 km north of Oranjemund.

Orange River Mines (ORM), is Namdeb’s Mining Licence 42, which extends along the Orange River for about 50 kilometres inland from the Mining Area 1 (MA1) licence eastern boundary to Sendelingsdrif near the town of Rosh Pinah.

“This licence area contains some of the highest-value diamonds in the world and includes the Sendelingsdrif, Obib and Daberas mines. Sendelingsdrif was inaugurated in 2014 by former president Hifikepunye Pohamba,” she says.

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