Key points
- Namco acquired a minimum 42.5% interest in three Angolan diamond concessions in Lunda Norte province totalling 664 sq km, including 50km along the Chicapa River, for expenditure of up to US$2.5 million.
- The company acquired a 70% interest in ten exploration licences and one mining permit totalling 262 sq km in Zaire’s Wamba/Tunduala district, with an initial exploration program of up to US$600,000 planned.
- Namco has chartered a vessel for a five year period, with an option to extend for a further five years, due in Cape Town in July 1997 for installation of a 50 tonne per hour dense media separation plant built by Van Eck & Lurie.
- The company’s Namssol, an 85 tonne underwater tracked mining vehicle built in Aberdeen, Scotland by SubSea Offshore, is due for completion in August 1997, and Namco was recently granted a 15 year mining licence over the Koichab area of its Luderitz Bay grant in Namibia.
The company has expanded into Angola and Zaire, two major diamond producing regions of Africa. Namco is already active in
Namibia and South Africa and is intent on developing additional diamond projects in the region.
In Angola’s Lunda Norte province, the company has acquired a minimum 42.5% interest in three diamond concessions totalling 664 sq km, including 50km along the Chicapa River. The agreement over the concessions is subject to requisite approvals and provisions and calls for the expenditure of up to US$2.5 million. The company plans to dredge the riverine deposits and to explore the alluvial flats.
The concessions are well located with one area downstream from the Catoca Pipe where production by Endiama, Odebrecht, Almazy Rossii-Sakha is planned to commence next year at the rate of five million carats per year.
Angola is a prominent diamond producer. In 1996 the country was the world’s fourth largest diamond producer by value. Diamonds were first discovered in 1912. By 1990 total Angolan production exceeded 60 million carats. The average value of production is US$150 per carat, second only to that of Namibia. Lunda Norte Province has accounted for the majority of past production, with much of this from the Chicapa River.
In Zaire, the company has acquired a 70% interest, subject to approvals, in ten exploration licences and one mining permit totalling 262 sq km in the Wamba/Tunduala district of the Kwango sub-region. The project is 500km from Kinshasa, 25km from the Angolan border and proximal to the diamond fields of Angola’s Cuango River Valley. Preliminary work on the concessions by the company’s partners has yielded limited results with diamond values of US$110 per carat. An initial exploration program costing up to US$600,000 is planned.
In view of the current political situation in Zaire, the company is monitoring its commitment but regards the acquisition as a strategic holding in a potentially productive area.
The Namibian marine diamond mining project is meeting both timing and cost parameters.
Namco has chartered a vessel for a five year period with options to extend for a further five years. The vessel is being modified in Bremerhaven, Germany and is scheduled to arrive in Cape Town in July 1997 for the installation of a 50 tonne per hour dense media separation plant which is being designed and built by South Africa’s Van Eck & Lurie.
The development of the company’s mining system, the Namssol, is proceeding on schedule with completion anticipated in August 1997. The Namssol is an 85 tonne underwater tracked vehicle capable of working in water depths of up to 200 metres. It is designed to pump one million cu.m. of material per year to the vessel’s processing plant. The Namssol is being built in Aberdeen, Scotland, by SubSea Offshore, a Dresser Industries company.
The company was recently granted a 15 year mining licence over the Koichab area of its Luderitz Bay grant, Namibia.
