Namibian Minerals’ first generation NamSSol mining system was damaged on Sunday, Jan. 7, during recovery from the seabed to the support vessel MV Kovambo.
No employees were injured and the local marine environment was not adversely affected by the incident. The vessel has not been damaged.
NamSSol was mining in feature 19 of the company’s Luderitz Bay grant in standard operating conditions at a water depth of 70 metres and in sediments of approximately four metres thick. The NamSSol’s tracks apparently became lodged and during subsequent recovery NamSSol parted in two, leaving the undercarriage on the seabed. This is the first incident of its kind for NamSSol in three years of operation.
The upper chassis of NamSSol is being returned to Cape Town in order to clear the deck of MV Kovambo for recovery of the undercarriage, planned for next week. Specialized personnel and equipment are being dispatched to Luderitz to assess the damage fully and to review remediation plans for the system. Namco’s insurers have been notified of the event. The length of disruption to production will be assessed on inspection of the recovered parts of the system and will depend on the repairs that need to be carried out.
Namibian government authorities have been notified of events to date. Further information will be issued once the full extent of damage has been determined on recovery of the undercarriage.
Despite this interruption to production, commissioning of Namco’s new mining system, Nam 2, is progressing well in mining licence 36. Nam 2 is expected to produce the principal part of the company’s diamond production this year.
“This is a setback for our production and is only mitigated by the much larger capacity of our new Nam 2 system. Its daily mining capability has already exceeded that of the NamSSol,” said Alastair Holberton, chairman and chief executive officer of Namco.
