The dredge is meant to move materials on two new mining sites on the Pocket Beach Area, situated on the west coast, midway between Luederitz and Oranjemund.

Namdeb had planned to present the dredge to the media and other guests on its arrival at Luederitz Bay on Saturday.

On Wednesday night, however, the ship carrying the dredge got caught in "boisterous weather" off the South African coast between Durban and Port Elizabeth, Namdeb spokesman Hilifa Mbako told The Namibian yesterday.

While not much was known by yesterday afternoon, the weather damaged the ship's load.

"In the loss are many sections of the dredge, as well as one container of discharge piping," Mbako said.

Before being sea-freighted to Namibia from South Africa, the dredge had been disassembled.

"She (the ship) was rolling up to 20 degrees and lost most of her cargo," Mbako said.

"The project team, together with the supplying company, Vosta, are working at all options to ameliorate the loss of production caused by this loss," he said.

The dredge was built by European company Vosta LMG from Amsterdam, Holland.

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