Production Overview

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Namdeb currently holds nine mining licences. The Mining Area No.1, Bogenfels and Elizabeth Bay Mining Licences extend from the Orange River in the south to Lüderitz in the north, and approximately 5.5 kilometres offshore in the Atlantic Ocean to approximately 35 kilometres inland.

Mining Licences 128A, B&Care marine licences situated adjacent to the marine portions of the Elizabeth Bay and Bogenfels licences.

Douglas Bay Mining Licence extends from Lüderitz north to latitude 26 degrees south and from the high water mark of the Atlantic Ocean to about 15 kilometres inland.

The Orange River Mining Licence extends along the Orange River for about 50 kilometres inland from the Mining Area No.1 boundary.

Atlantic 1 Mining Licence occupies a portion of the middle shelf of the South Atlantic Ocean, from the boundary of Mining Area No.1 to about 65 kilometres from the shore.

The Mineral Resource Department consists of the following sections: Exploration Geology; Sampling Plants and Geological Laboratory (Geolab); Mineral Resource Management; Mine Planning; Mine Geology; Survey; Info Centre and GIS Office and Environmental Management.

The aim of the Exploration Geology section is to discover, delineate, and evaluate new and existing deposits. New prospects are mapped out and delineated using small diameter probe drilling. A geological model is constructed from this data, and modelled in 3D using Vulcan software, or a Geographical Information System (GIS) package, and the deposit is zoned into geologically homogenous zones. Sampling per geological zone is done, using either bulk samples, or the BG36 large diameter drill. Depending on the different deposits, varying sample sizes are taken. E.g. on the Orange River deposits, samples of 20 000 – 40 000 tonnes are taken, whereas at Elizabeth Bay, five tonne samples are sufficient. In addition, a project looking for primary kimberlites is running in northeast Namibia. This project is at grassroots level, and no kimberlites have been discovered to date.

The sampling plants and Geolab are used to treat the samples that are generated in the exploration programmes from either bulk sampling or BG36 large diameter drilling. The Orange River Exploration (OREX) plant is a 90 tonne per hour Density Medium Separation (DMS) plant that currently treats samples from the Sendelingsdrif prospect, and will continue to treat samples from other Orange River prospects in the future. In Mining Area 1 (MA1), the Southern Areas Sampling Plant (SASP), a 10 tonne per hour DMS plant, treats all samples from MA1 and Bogenfels. All of the concentrate generated by these plants is treated at the Geolab and the Geological Sampling Recovery (GSR), a state-of-the-art recovery with the latest X-ray machines. In addition, the GSR is used to audit production plant efficiencies.

The Mineral Resource Management team is the custodian of data related to the mineral resource. Database development and maintenance resides in this section. The team uses a single source approach to maintain data integrity.

The Mine Planning team at the Mineral Resource Department performs a central planning function to the different mine operations in Diamond Area 1. It includes preparing Life of Mine (LOM) plans, mine design, technical support and audits. They also help with the compilation of the Strategic Business Plan (SBP) of the mine.

Mine geologists are part of the management teams in each mining operation. They play an integral part in the business and rely on effective and fast survey information in feeding actual data into the planning and Short Interval Control (SIC) processes. Mine geologists have a major role in assurance process audits and ensure that the resource is performing within the set limits. Keeping the resource updated and adding carats to the resource is critical for the LOM process.

The Survey Section’s prime objective is to provide a survey service to the Mining, Geology, Environmental and Engineering Departments at Namdeb. The Survey Section is responsible for the generation of monthly mineral resource depletions. The section also provides technical support to the navigation and mining component on the Beachcomber and !Gaub dredgers.

The Information Management section deals with data delivery and information processing, capturing, indexing, storage, retrieval and meta-data services for all Mineral Resource sections.

The Environmental section is responsible for providing environmental assurance throughout the mine’s life cycle. Its main objectives include: The implementation, maintenance and continued improvement of an ISO 14001 certified management system; collaborative stakeholder engagement that influences regional/national initiatives, enables transparent reporting to stakeholders and manages reputational risk; obtaining licences to operate through an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, in line with legal requirements; monitoring of natural resource use, setting of targets and reporting of performance; and, rehabilitation done in a way to address legacy issues and proactively included into new mining projects. Environmental personnel are part of each operation as well as every aspect of the mine planning process.

As mining developed in the Sperrgebiet, assets were acquired and infrastructure developed to support the operation. Out of the original shacks and dirt tracks grew towns, roads, railway lines and communication systems. Today, the total value of the infrastructure and equipment in the Sperrgebiet is estimated to be over N$ 9 billion.

Namdeb presently owns a fleet of 296 earthmoving machines with a replacement value of around N$ 800 million. The fleet consists of articulated dump trucks and excavators used in the stripping of overburden sand, whilst front-end loaders and rigid-frame trucks are used in the load and haul process. Other equipment, such as small excavators, rock-breakers and vacuum units are used in the bedrock cleaning process. Ancillary equipment such as track dozers, low-beds and road graders, support the operations.

In addition to its conventional earthmoving fleet, Namdeb has developed other mining technologies over the years, and it presently utilises two cutter-suction dredges for stripping overburden in Mining Area 1 and in the Pocket Beach area at Bogenfels.

The larger of the dredges was previously used in combination with a floating treatment plant to process low grade ore at low cost.

In the past Namdeb also utilised two bucket-wheel excavators for overburden stripping. One of these machines is still operational and whilst the current ore bodies don’t lend themselves to this type of stripping tool, potential still remains for the bucket-wheel to be used for dump mining, or for rehabilitation.

As part of business sustainability, the Namdeb Strategic Project team continues to investigate new projects which would extend the life of the business. Although the Namdeb mining licence areas have been mined for decades, this world-class deposit still has much potential to provide long term benefits to the Namibian economy.

The remaining resources will however present challenging mining conditions, and will require innovative new technologies and mining systems.

The current project focus areas are the Sendelingsdrif deposit, the Elizabeth Bay Plant, the re-building of the Floating Treatment Plant and the development of the Inner Shelf and Inshore mining areas.

As Namibia continues to march towards the attainment of Vision 2030 objectives, Namdeb is proud to be part of this exigent journey, working towards a lasting diamond future for the nation.

Namdeb has embarked on another phase of its ongoing efforts towards Project 2050, a journey which is aimed at ensuring the long-term profitability of Namdeb. The company is confident that with the right approach and support from all its stakeholders, Namdeb has the potential to unlock more sustainable value that will last for many decades to come.

Northern Coastal Mines consists of three operations within mining licences

ML44 (Bogenfels), ML45 (Elizabeth Bay) and ML46 (Douglas Bay).

Bogenfels: The Pocket Beaches mine is located 130km south of Luderitz.

This remote site is self contained having employee accommodation, messing facilities and generates its own electricity and fresh water.

Current mining operations are from the deposit located south of the Bogenfels Arch. Two types of deposits are found in the Bogenfels area, namely pocket beach deposits and deflation deposits.

A pocket beach is defined as a sediment-filled embayment developed between headlands. The diamondiferous deposit is situated within bedrock depressions and on the landward sides of bedrock highs.

The deflation deposit is a wind-concentrated diamond deposit; wind processes have removed the finer grained material and effectively concentrated the diamond deposit.

Elizabeth Bay: Elizabeth Bay mine is located 40km south of Luderitz. The ore body varies, consisting of diamondiferous material occurring in multiple thin units (grit layers and lenses) separated by barren, finer grained sands. This succession has been divided stratigraphically and chronologically into three distinct units, namely: Red Beds, Brown Beds and Grey Beds. In 2009, a large rich deposit became accessible by accretion of the sea, thus exposing the richer gravels previous covered by the sea. This deposit will most likely be mined in the near future should the Elizabeth Bay optimisation project prove to be viable.

Beach and Marine Contractor Operations: Shallow marine contractors generally utilise mining vessels of less than 25 tonnes. Divers mine gravel from the sea bed at water depths of minus 7 metres to minus 30 metres. The mined gravel is generally screened and bagged while at sea. The screened gravel is then transported to Luderitz and off-loaded at Contractors Treatment Facility (CTF) where it is further processed. Currently, surf zone contractor mining is in the area between Elizabeth Bay and Luderitz, between the high water line to a depth of minus 7 metres. Land based contractor mining is currently active in the Pomona area.

Douglas Bay: Material from small land based mining activities and shallow water mining operations in the coastal zones near Luderitz are also treated at the CTF.

Previously known as Mining Area 1 (MA1), Southern Coastal Mine (SCM) is situated within Mining Licence No. 43 on the south-western coast of Namibia. SCM stretches from the Orange River at Oranjemund to Chameis Bay, about 100km north of Oranjemund.

Raised Pleistocene diamondiferous beaches, ranging from 25m below mean sea level to +30m above mean sea level are responsible for the lion share of the carats produced by Namdeb and its predecessors since operations began early in the previous century.

The mineralised marine gravels have been washed onto shore from approximately two million years ago in the form of linear beaches driven by the southern winds and long shore drift. The diamonds were transported from the kimberlite pipes of southern Africa, along the mighty Orange River to the Atlantic Ocean. The large diamonds are concentrated in the south and as the gravel load moved along the coast the vigorous and persistent wave action sorted the diamond population into smaller stones and higher grades towards the Affenrucken area, some 80km to the north. This wave action and sand interacting with the bedrock structure caused gullies and potholes to upgrade the trapping of the diamonds. The diamonds and gravels were covered by marine and windblown sand varying between 25m in depth in the south to less than 6m in depth at Affenrucken. Geologists sampled this deposit using trenches spaced between 500m and 1km apart, evaluating the potential diamond content.

Ore is currently mined from an area within 15km from the southern limit of the mining licence. Stripping the overburden is done primarily with a dredger and a fleet of articulated dump trucks (ADT’s). The dredge pumps the fluidised overburden onto the beach and this plays a vital role in the building out of the shoreline (accretion) and the maintenance of the seawalls. The ADT’s remove the overburden and build seawalls to protect the mining operations from the onslaught of the Atlantic Ocean.

Younger foreshore terrace gravels that occur at current sea level are stockpiled for later treatment. These gravels are of low grade and currently two wet in-field screening plants are utilised to screen the oversize and fines material, upgrading the gravel which is then taken to the treatment plant. These screening plants are used to reduce haulage costs and are deployed far from the main treatment plant to maximise the savings effect on load and haul costs.

The high grade basal gravel is usually well entrapped in the bedrock depressions and is mostly less than a metre thick. Geologists pass areas as depleted and surveyors ensure that the advance lines are surveyed and captured on a geographical information system (GIS). The GIS is used in displaying data like monthly depletions, sample data, infrastructure and licence areas.

Namdeb’s Mining Licence 42 extends along the Orange River for about 50 kilometres inland from the Mining Area 1 (MA1) licence eastern boundary to Sendelingsdrif near the town of Rosh Pinah. This licence area is referred to as Orange River Mines and contains some of the highest value diamonds in the world.

Although early expeditions along the lower Orange River considered the ancient river deposits to be barren, it was in the early 1960’s that diamonds were discovered amongst the boulders. It is now well established that there are two principal types of deposits flanking the modern Orange River:

• Older, higher lying terraces which yield the bulk of the economic deposits. These are referred to as Proto-Orange deposits and are dated at some 17 to 19 millions years old;
• Younger, lower lying terraces which are economic in localised areas only. These are referred to as Meso-Orange deposits and are dated at some two to five million years old.

In general the Proto-Orange deposits are low-grade (<2carats/hundred ton - cpht) with exceptional grades confined to small localised trap sites such as potholes, waterfall features and in the presence of large boulders. The high diamond quality (>98% gem stones) and large average size (1-2 carats/stone) contribute to make Orange River Mines an attractive and exciting economic prospect.

Namdeb commenced production operations of Orange River Mines at Auchas during 1990. The mining of this deposit was completed by 2000 by which time mining moved to the Daberas deposit. During the last 10 years Daberas has proven to be a huge success yielding healthy returns to shareholders and continues to be the mainstay of Orange River Mines. A total of 46 million tonnes of waste will be stripped over its 12-year lifespan and some 97 million tonnes of ore will be treated to produce 562 000 carats at a stone size of 1.36 carats/stone. The mine has a workforce of 228 people of which 99% are Namibian. Partners in the mining operations include Barloworld and B&E Namibia. Barloworld repairs and maintains the earthmoving fleet, while B&E Namibia do the mining and screening of the Hub portion of the Daberas deposit.

Orange River Mines has an exceptional safety record. No fatalities have been recorded at Orange River Mines and no disabling injuries have been recorded since August 2007. This remarkable achievement can be attributed to a resilient behaviour based safety culture and a strong focus on risk identification, assessment and mitigation.

Botanical studies revealed that Juttadinteria Albata, a succulent plant found on gravel terraces, was located on the Sendelingsdrif, Driegat and Daberas deposits. This species is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Orange River Mine’s workforce has undergone training on the identification of the plant so that no plant will be unwittingly destroyed. Orange River Mines is also working in collaboration with the National Botanical Research Institute on a relocation trail to assess the feasibility of successful relocation of the Juttadinteria Albata during mining operations. This process forms part of the greater Orange River Mines Environmental Management System.

The Orange River Mines Life-of-Mine Extension Project is currently refining the feasibility of mining the Sendelingsdrif deposit as the next chapter in the life of Orange River Mines. Sendelingsdrif is a very exciting deposit located 20 kilometres upstream from Daberas Mine. Bulk sampling was done during 1999 and again from 2006 until present. This existing deposit contains 368 000 carats in 74 million tonnes of ore with only three million waste tonnes to be stripped. The project team is currently evaluating various possible mining and treatment methodologies to derive maximum benefit from the mining of Sendelingsdrif. The most likely solution entails the construction of an aerial ropeway to transport dry screened material from Sendelingsdrif to the existing treatment plants at Daberas Mine. This asset can also be used to link Daberas to future mining areas within the mining licence, such as Obib and Arrisdrif.