Trans Hex Scraps Deep-Water Namibia Operation

South African-based diamond miner Trans Hex Group has announced that it has ceased its deep-water mining operations off the coast of Namibia, due to its realization that the mining is no longer profitable for the company Business Day reported.

Trans Hex CEO Llewellyn Delport explained last year that the firm would stop mining off Namibia’s coast if its margins related to the project began to shrink. At that time, he reported that production had been on a steady rise. However, most recently Delport was quoted as saying that negotiation’s with the concession owner had changed the way the operation’s revenues were split up, making it no longer profitable for Trans Hex to continue.

Delport also said that the company has decided to sell its two mining ships.

In the first three months of the year, the deep-water operation saw a loss of R17 million ($2.20 million in current exchange rates), a jump from the R10.1 million ($1.31 million) seen last year.

Trans Hex also has mining operations in South Africa and Angola.