Namdeb re-opens Elizabeth Bay mine after two years of hiatus

Namibia’s main diamond producer, Namdeb has resumed operations at its Elizabeth Bay mine south of Luderitz after two years of hiatus.
The company manager of northern coastal operations Tony Bessinger was quoted by The Namibian Economist as saying that the mine had been under rehabilitation with a mining optimisation exercises having been carried out to ensure effective recovery of diamonds.
"We have started, and operations are still ramping up to full capacity," he said.
Meanwhile, Bessinger said Namdeb had sampled and developed new areas to mine, which had great potential.
"Elizabeth Bay Mine is on the brink of possibly its best period ever, with the exception of the 1920s when the miners didn't have to work very hard to get the surface diamonds at Elizabeth Bay," he said.
Meanwhile, a geologist at the mine, James Alexander, said it was estimated that there were about 2.7 million carats at the Elizabeth Bay mine.
He said they had plans to produce just over 300,000 carats at the mine this year.
The mine reached similar levels of production in 2007 when it produced about 340,000 carats.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished