Debmarine Namibia
Debmarine Namibia recovers diamonds from the Atlantic seabed off southern Namibia, in 90 to 140 metres of water. It took 1,435,000 carats from the ocean floor in 2025. It calls itself the largest marine diamond recovery company in the world, and it has been in continuous production since the start of the century, which few seabed operations anywhere can claim.
It is owned equally by De Beers and the Government of Namibia through Namdeb Holdings. Its legal name is De Beers Marine Namibia.
News and articles
Overview
- Registered in Namibia in 1985. The business migrated from Cape Town at the turn of the century, production is dated to January 2001 and the company began operating under its own name in January 2002.
- The government lifted its stake from 15% to 50% in 2011, making it a true joint venture, and Namdeb Holdings took over both the offshore and onshore licences on October 1, 2011.
- One licence, Atlantic 1, covers 5,987 km² of seabed from Oranjemund north to Chameis Bay, starting ~8 km offshore. Every boundary is in the sea.
- What is actually disturbed is small and closely measured: 15.40 km² of seabed was mined in 2025, 17.52 km² in 2024 and 20.8 km² in 2023, a fraction of 1% of the licence a year. The company says it had worked ~3% of the licence after 21 years, and returns 99% of extracted sediment to the seabed.
- Two recovery methods are in use. Most of the fleet drills and airlifts gravel from the seabed; the newest ship uses a 370-tonne tracked crawler that sweeps a 21-metre arc every 25 seconds and draws gravel up an 800 mm pipeline.
- Marine deposits are the bigger half of Namibia’s diamond industry. De Beers puts them at ~80% of the country’s production and 94% of its diamond resources.
- Reserves at Atlantic 1 stand at 9.65 million saleable carats with a stated asset life of 26 years, and resources beyond reserves add ~73 million carats. The company’s own submission gives a mine life to 2051.
- The flagship MV Benguela Gem cost US$468 million, the largest single investment ever made in marine diamond mining, and was inaugurated on March 18, 2022.
- The diamond price crash has hurt badly. Turnover fell from N$13.3 billion in 2023 to N$8.3 billion in 2024 and N$6.4 billion in 2025, swinging from a N$2.4 billion profit to consecutive losses, and permanent headcount fell from 1,122 to 993.
The licence
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Licence | Atlantic 1, mining licence ML 47 |
| Area | 5,987 km², or 598,709 hectares, entirely offshore |
| Location | From Oranjemund north to Chameis Bay in the //Karas Region, from ~8 km offshore |
| Water depth | 90 to 140 metres |
| Where the work is | A priority area of ~1,200 km² holds the best ground, and current mining sits inside a ~600 km² zone worked as 10 km² blocks |
| Reserves | 9,652,000 saleable carats of probable diamond reserves, with a stated asset life of 26 years, as at December 31, 2025 |
| Resources beyond reserves | ~73 million carats over ~977 km² of seabed |
| Mined in 2025 | 15.40 km², against a plan of 17.48 km² |
The fleet
The fleet shrank in 2025, when two vessels that had reached the end of their economic life were retired. That leaves four recovery vessels and one sampling ship. The company’s own website still says seven, and is out of date.
| Vessel | Method | Built | Length | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MV Benguela Gem | Seabed crawler | 2020, inaugurated March 2022 | 177 m | Active flagship. The first next-generation crawler was fitted in September 2025. |
| MV Mafuta | Crawler | 1983, converted 2007 | 170 m | Active. Planned maintenance during the second quarter of 2026. |
| MV Debmar Atlantic | Airlift drill | 1978, converted 1994 | 138 m | Active |
| MV Debmar Pacific | Airlift drill | 1977, converted 1997 | 138 m | Active. Laid up for the final two months of 2025. |
| MV !Gariep | Airlift drill | 1983, converted to a drillship 2003 | 108 m | Active |
| MV SS Nujoma | Sampling and exploration only, no production | 2016 | 103 m | Active. The first vessel of its kind. |
| MV Grand Banks | Recovery | Converted 1992 | 122 m | Retired during 2025 |
| MV Coral Sea | Recovery, chartered rather than owned | n/a | n/a | Retired during 2025 |
Two next-generation crawlers worth N$1.1 billion were delivered in 2025 and the first was fitted to the flagship at Cape Town on September 8. Each weighs 370 tonnes. Together they are expected to raise the mining rate by 20%, improve pump life by 30% and add ~80,000 high-value carats a year, more than replacing what the two retired ships produced.
Production and results
| Measure | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carats recovered | 1,435,000 | 1,625,000 | 1,859,310 |
| Seabed mined | 15.40 km² | 17.52 km² | 20.8 km² |
| Turnover | N$6.4 billion | N$8.3 billion | N$13.3 billion |
| Result after tax | Loss of N$109 million | Loss of N$255 million | Profit of N$2.4 billion |
| Royalties paid | N$767 million | n/a | N$1.3 billion |
| Permanent employees at year end | 993 | n/a | 1,122 |
De Beers reported 724,000 carats from Debmarine Namibia in the first half of 2026, 14% below the 846,000 carats of the first half of 2025. The company is Namibia’s largest taxpayer. Two rounds of voluntary separation have run alongside a formal retrenchment process.
Ownership
| Holder | Stake | As reported in |
|---|---|---|
| Namdeb Holdings, the immediate parent | 100% | Company shareholding page, read August 24, 2026 |
| De Beers Group, through Namdeb Holdings | 50% | Anglo American ore reserves and mineral resources report 2025 |
| Government of the Republic of Namibia, through Namdeb Holdings | 50% | Anglo American ore reserves and mineral resources report 2025 |
| Anglo American look-through | 42.5%, being 85% of De Beers and half of Namdeb Holdings | Anglo American ore reserves and mineral resources report 2025, computed |
Namdeb Holdings also owns the onshore producer Namdeb Diamond Corporation and half of the Namibia Diamond Trading Company, which sorts and values the output in Windhoek.
Listed exposure
There is no ticker for the company itself. The listed route in is Anglo American, on the London Stock Exchange, which owns 85% of De Beers and so looks through to 42.5% of this business. Two things make that an indirect read at best: Anglo is a diversified miner in which Namibian marine diamonds are a small part, and it has announced its intention to divest De Beers, which would sever the link. In July 2026 Botswana’s government told its parliament that Anglo had chosen a preferred bidder from three shortlisted bidders. Anglo’s chief executive said at the end of that month that it was not negotiating exclusively with anybody. No sale agreement had been announced by October 3, 2026. The other half of the venture belongs to the Namibian state and is not investable.