Construction on board Namibian Minerals’ (Namco) new mining vessel MV Ya Toivo is complete. Sea trials of the vessel and its mining system are nearing completion off the South African coast.
Since July, the company has completed extensive on-land testing of the hydraulics, electronics and mechanical functions of Nam 2, its second-generation seabed crawler. Construction of Namco’s 100 tons per hour processing unit was completed at the end of November. During initial sea trials, Nam 2 has been successfully launched and recovered from MV Ya Toivo and all functions have been tested on the seabed, including the pumping of sediment material.
“The construction phase of this highly specialist project has been completed within a year of signing the charter agreement on MV Ya Toivo. We expect her to be on station in Namibia later this month,” said Namco chairman and chief executive officer, Alastair Holberton.
Designed by Namco’s engineers and built in South Africa, the new Nam 2 machine is targeted to recover approximately 200,000 carats in 2001, which allows for a buildup in efficiency during the start-up months of production. With its more powerful dredging capacity, it is expected to process 1.5 million cu.m. of seabed material annually, compared to approximately 700,000 cu.m. from the first machine. Cash operating costs for each of the seabed crawlers are targeted at $13.5-million (U.S.) per year.
