Debmarine Namibia, a joint venture between the Namibian government and De Beers, has announced its plans to build the world’s largest diamond mining vessel. According to Gem Konnect, the ship is estimated to cost approximately $142 million, and will be operational in 2021.
The new ship will be 176 metres long – two metres longer than the largest vessel currently in the fleet, the MV Mafuta. The new vessel will join five other mining ships in the Debmarine Namibia fleet, “enhancing the business’s ability to recover diamonds off Namibia’s Atlantic coastline”. It is expected to “create 130 new jobs alongside Debmarine Namibia’s current workforce of 900 employees”.
De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver said: “There is a great amount of potential in Namibia’s marine diamond deposits and this new vessel will support our strategy to continue to grow our offshore operations […]”.
