Namco records record production

Marine diamond miner Namibian Minerals (NMR-T) produced a record 117,050 carats of diamond during the recent third quarter, eclipsing the previous quarterly production record of 116,560 carats set in the first quarter of 1999.

The bulk of the third-quarter production was derived from Features 21 and 22 on mining lease 103A in the Hottentot Bay Grant off the coast of Namibia. During the quarter, both the MV Kovambo and Ya Toivo, support vessels for the NamSSol and Nam2 seabed crawlers, respectively, operated on the licence. The two vessels also chipped in some production from licence 36 in an area known as Bakers Bay.

The quarterly production record comes on the heels of a daily production record set in late July when the Nam 2 hauled in 16,417 carats from 1.9 sq. km of Feature 22. The previous 1-day record was set in early 1999, when the NamSSol crawler recovered 16,271 carats from Feature 19. Feature 19 lies in Luderitz Bay south of Hottentot Bay.

Namco’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Walker, said in a prepared statement, “The third quarter is the first production period in which Namco has enjoyed the benefit of having both the NamSSol and Nam2 mining tools in operation. While work needs to be done to further improve the efficiency of the crawlers, the quarter’s results demonstrate what can be achieved with this mining technology, which is unique to Namco.”

For the first three quarters of 2002, production tallies to 205,686 carats.

Namco’s exploration efforts during the quarter focussed on the Hottentot Bay area. The MV Zacharias exploration vessel treated 481 samples and delineated three new mining blocks.

Namco reports that Zacharias’ efforts pushed the probable reserve estimate for ML103A, to 210,000 carats from 74,000 carats. So far, 133,720 of those carats have been recovered. Exploration continues near Features 21 and 22.

At the end of the third quarter, Namco’s overall probable reserve was pegged at 392,000 carats (at a grade of 0.37 carat per sq. metre), compared with 404,000 carats (at a grade of 0.33 carat per sq. metre) determined by a March calculation. Thanks to the additional resource outlined by the Zacharias, probable reserves fell just 12,000 carats despite the mining of 163,440 carats during the period.