De Beers looks to sea, new mines

CAPE TOWN – Diamond giant De Beers is looking seawards and will step up the search for new mines this year as century-old deposits in its home base of South Africa run out of rich ore, says a senior official.

“Our existing mines are at a mature stage, some have been operating for over 100 years,” David Noko, Managing Director of De Beers’ South African unit, told Reuters on Thursday. De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer, is currently outfitting a vessel on the Cape Town waterfront that will suck up gems from the seabed, starting in July.”The sea-based resources have always been there and unexploited due the complexity of mining at sea,” Noko said in an interview on the 1.1 billion rand ship, named Peace in Africa.”We’ve spent over 300 million rand on test-mining projects, on sampling, and we are confident now that we can go on a large-scale production process.”De Beers is using expertise from its experience in Namibia, where five sea-mining vessels are producing more diamonds than the country’s land-based mines.Peace in Africa will be the firm’s biggest sea-mining vessel at more than 20 000 tonnes when fully outfitted, carrying a remote-controlled “crawler” that is sent down 120 metres to the sea floor to suck up gravel.The diamonds were thought to have been deposited at sea more than 60 million years ago as rivers flushed out gems hidden in volcanic rock on land.When the ship is operating, some 10 000 cubic metres of water and gravel per hour is pushed up a giant pipe, dubbed the “umbilical cord”, to a treatment plant on the ship that sifts out diamond-rich ore.The operation is due to produce around 240 000 carats per year of diamonds when at full speed.In 2005, output at De Beers Consolidated Mines, the South African subsidiary, rose 10,3 per cent to 15,15 million carats.STEPPING UP EXPLORATION As De Beers struggles to extract diamonds from its mature South African mines, some of which had to close recently when profitable ore had been exhausted, the firm will step up prospecting this year to find new deposits, Noko said.”South Africa is still very prospective.This year we’re going to aggressively pursue prospecting projects on land.We’re very optimistic, we think there’s still more diamond pipelines somewhere in South Africa,” he said.The South African unit, which closed the historic Kimberley underground mine last year, will boost spending on exploration this year, Noko added.In its push to support South African output, De Beers announced last year a 1,2-billion-rand project to reopen the Voorspoed mine, which had been shut for nearly a century.The firm is also looking at extending its Finsch underground mine by moving down to block number 5, digging 70 metres deeper to around 800 metres, Noko added.De Beers is 45 per cent owned by mining group Anglo American , 40 per cent by the Oppenheimer family and 15 per cent by the Botswana government,Nampa-ReutersDe Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer, is currently outfitting a vessel on the Cape Town waterfront that will suck up gems from the seabed, starting in July.”The sea-based resources have always been there and unexploited due the complexity of mining at sea,” Noko said in an interview on the 1.1 billion rand ship, named Peace in Africa.”We’ve spent over 300 million rand on test-mining projects, on sampling, and we are confident now that we can go on a large-scale production process.”De Beers is using expertise from its experience in Namibia, where five sea-mining vessels are producing more diamonds than the country’s land-based mines.Peace in Africa will be the firm’s biggest sea-mining vessel at more than 20 000 tonnes when fully outfitted, carrying a remote-controlled “crawler” that is sent down 120 metres to the sea floor to suck up gravel.The diamonds were thought to have been deposited at sea more than 60 million years ago as rivers flushed out gems hidden in volcanic rock on land.When the ship is operating, some 10 000 cubic metres of water and gravel per hour is pushed up a giant pipe, dubbed the “umbilical cord”, to a treatment plant on the ship that sifts out diamond-rich ore.The operation is due to produce around 240 000 carats per year of diamonds when at full speed.In 2005, output at De Beers Consolidated Mines, the South African subsidiary, rose 10,3 per cent to 15,15 million carats. STEPPING UP EXPLORATION As De Beers struggles to extract diamonds from its mature South African mines, some of which had to close recently when profitable ore had been exhausted, the firm will step up prospecting this year to find new deposits, Noko said.”South Africa is still very prospective.This year we’re going to aggressively pursue prospecting projects on land.We’re very optimistic, we think there’s still more diamond pipelines somewhere in South Africa,” he said.The South African unit, which closed the historic Kimberley underground mine last year, will boost spending on exploration this year, Noko added.In its push to support South African output, De Beers announced last year a 1,2-billion-rand project to reopen the Voorspoed mine, which had been shut for nearly a century.The firm is also looking at extending its Finsch underground mine by moving down to block number 5, digging 70 metres deeper to around 800 metres, Noko added.De Beers is 45 per cent owned by mining group Anglo American , 40 per cent by the Oppenheimer family and 15 per cent by the Botswana government, Nampa-Reuters