Subsea and Namdeb Team Up to Mine Shallow Namibian Shoreline
May 26, 08
UK-based offshore geotechnical and mineral drilling firm Subsea Minerals has announced a partnership with Namdeb Diamond Corporation to explore for diamonds in the surf zones off the Namibian coast, Mining Weekly reported.
Although marine mining is carried out off the coast of
Goodden explained that the firm intends to conduct a sampling program with innovative “walking jack-up platforms,” which can operate, dredging material from the surf zone, in rough seas and strong currents. The jack-up platform, with its eight legs, will literally walk out into the surf and mine for diamonds at a depth of eight meters.
“Potential exists, with larger equipment,” explained Goodden, “to mine other pre-existing beach levels at up to 20 meters of water depth,” and even up to 30 meters with larger platforms. “The idea is to mine the in-shore areas, until ship-based mining systems are able to take over,” he says.
Subsea Minerals operates a separate exploration project with Namdeb at Oranjemund. Namdeb is a 50/50 partnership between the government of