De Beers Launches South Africa’s First “Mine on a Ship”


Shown here at dock in Cape Town, De Beers’ ship Peace in Africa is scheduled to begin offshore
diamond mining in June and is expected to recover 240,000 carats per year from sea-floor deposits
off the west coast of South Africa.
At a ceremony held in Cape Town, South Africa, in late April, De Beers celebrated the naming and blessing of Peace in Africa, the first marine diamond mining vessel to operate in South African waters. The company will mine for marine diamonds in the Atlantic, off Namaqualand in the Northern Cape Province.

The company described the launching of Peace in Africa as the culmination of 23 years of exploration and investigation into the potential of mining the deep sea areas off the Namaqualand coast. De Beers will use similar technology as that deployed off the Namibian coast where marine production exceeds that from the land-based mines. The vessel, which cost R1.2 billion ($168 million) to refurbish and equip, is fitted with a 250-mt undersea tracked crawler and has a specialized diamond recovery treatment plant on board. The ship has a crew of 60 who stay at sea for 28 days and then take 28 days leave.

Mining will be conducted using a drill system and the crawler; the drill and crawler loosen the seabed sediments, which are then airlifted or pumped to the vessel for processing. Sediments are screened on board to remove fine tailings and oversized fractions. The onboard plant is rated to handle 250 mt/h.

Speaking at the event, David Noko, managing director of De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) said, "The production expected from the South African Sea Areas offers the prospect of additional, good quality, profitable diamond production for De Beers which will make a valuable contribution to the South African economy. Mining is expected to commence in June 2007, and, once fully commissioned, the mining vessel is expected to yield approximately 240,000 carats a year, with an estimated operating life of 30 years. Should results from this marine mining operation exceed expectations we will certainly be considering additional vessels.

“We believe that this new venture illustrates our confidence in the future of diamond mining in South Africa, coming as it does just six months after the start of construction of the company’s othernew mine, the one million carat a year Voorspoed mine in the Free State.”

Noko also noted that De Beers will supply its offshore operations from a newly constructed supply center in Port Nolloth where the company renovated the ports infrastructure to meet the new business activity in the region.

Noko congratulated the team building the ship for proving that the technical expertise existed in South Africa among emerging and established Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies to undertake the very technical project. “During the development of the project, 76% of the total local procurement spend in South Africa went to BEE companies. This amounted to R344 million of the R452 million spent. The balance of the total cost of specialized equipment and services had to be economically sourced abroad, and I’m proud to say that of the R1.1 billion spent in total BEE suppliers received more than 30% of the business.”