Namco hits a sweet spot (July 29, 2002)

Marine diamond miner Namibian Minerals (NMR-T) has hit a sweet spot on Feature 22 at its Hottentot Bay grant off the coast of Namibia.

On July 23, the company’s Nam 2 seabed crawler recovered 54,240 diamonds weighing in at a total of 16,417.55 carats for an average of 0.30 carats per stone – the company’s best single-day diamond haul ever.

The Nam 2, supported the MV Ya Toivo mining vessel, recovered the stones from an area measuring about 1.9 sq. km to produce an average of around 8.8 carats per sq. metre.

The previous single-day recovery record was set by the MV Kovambo, which is equipped with the company’s original NamSSol 1 crawler, and came in at 16,271 carats. Those stones were derived from Feature 19 on the Marshall Fork Feature near the town of Luderitz, in early 1999.

Namco’s MV Kovambo and NamSSol 1 recently returned to production after the completion of repairs for damage suffered when a mining face collapse buried the crawler in early 2001.

Namco’s CEO, Greg Walker, said in a prepared statement, “This result is extremely pleasing and demonstrates the effectiveness and capability of Namco’s prospecting and production systems.

“Our priority is to significantly expand exploration activity and this result shows why. Less than one-percent of Namco’s total lease area of 20,800 sq. km has been explored. We are working to establish the reserve potential of our mining and exploration leases,” he added.