OFF THE COAST OF NAMIBIA
Deep beneath this frigid stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, some of the world’s most valuable diamonds are scattered like lost change.
The discovery of such gems has sparked a revolution in one of the world’s most storied industries, sending mining companies on a race for precious stones buried just under the sea floor.
For over a century, open-pit diamond mines have been some of the most valuable real estate on Earth, with small swaths of southern Africa producing billions of dollars of wealth. But those mines are gradually being exhausted. Experts predict that the output of existing onshore mines will decline by around 2 per cent annually in coming years. By 2050, production might cease.
Now, some of the first “floating mines” could offer hope for the world’s most mythologised gemstone, and extend a lifeline to countries like Namibia whose economies depend on diamonds. Last year, mining companies extracted $600 million (Dh2.20 billion) worth of diamonds off the Namibian coast, sucking them up in giant vacuum-like hoses.
“As [Namibia’s] land-based mines enter their twilight years, it’s very important for us and for Namibia that we have long-term mining prospects,” said Bruce Cleaver, the chief executive of De Beers, in an interview.
But as companies weigh the prospect of more offshore operations, environmentalists have raised concerns about the damage that could be inflicted on the sea floor.
Diamonds are formed when carbon is subjected to high temperatures and pressure deep underground. Some were hurled toward the surface millions of years ago in volcanic eruptions. In recent decades, geologists realised that because diamonds could be found in Namibia’s Orange River, there was a good chance they could also be detected at sea, swept there by the current. As it turned out, the underwater gems were among the world’s most valuable stones — with far greater clarity than diamonds mined on land.
Mining rights
De Beers, which historically dominated global diamond production, purchased mining rights to more than 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometres) off the Namibian sea floor in 1991. So far, it has explored only 3 per cent of that area.
The technology to extract the underwater diamonds took years to develop. Only recently has the firm been able to efficiently scavenge the sea for diamonds.
Underwater gems only represent about 13 per cent of the value of diamonds De Beers mines onshore each year, but more countries are pushing for exploration to begin along their coastlines.
At the unveiling last month of the SS Nujoma, a giant exploration vessel, former Namibian president Sam Nujoma smashed a bottle of beverage over the hull, surrounded by signs that read:
“The future of marine diamond mining is here, and it’s Namibian.”
In 1908, a railroad worker named Zacharias Lewala found a shiny stone in the desert of southwestern Namibia. South Africa’s diamond rush had been underway for a few decades, and now another boom began in the territory to its northwest, with miners finding some valleys strewn with the precious stones. Germany, which controlled present-day Namibia until World War I, extracted 7 million carats between 1908 and 1914.
A century later, many of those mining sites are now ghost towns. All that’s left of Kolmanskop, where Lewala found his diamond, is a cluster of abandoned wooden houses, their living rooms covered in sand. It is a portrait of the rapid boom-and-bust life cycle of diamond mining.
Mining companies have invested billions in technology that would lead to new finds. And there have been some big ones: In 1982 in Botswana, De Beers opened a mine called Jwaneng, which produces roughly 12 million carats per year, worth over $2 billion.
But known diamond deposits began to diminish in recent years, even as demand for the gems has remained strong. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on diamond jewellery, more than half of it in the United States, an all-time high. Demand in emerging economies such as China and India is also expected to increase.
Those trends — diminishing supply and rising demand — made Namibia’s offshore deposits all the more important. In the 1990s, De Beers sent its first commercial vessels into the Atlantic in search of diamonds. Now, more than 90 per cent of Namibia’s diamond-related revenue comes from offshore finds.
These days, the company uses drones to fly over vast stretches of the ocean, looking for areas that might be worth exploring. Then it sends vessels like the Mafuta to dredge the most promising areas. Most of the diamonds are close to the surface, De Beers said, so it does not go deeper than six feet beneath the sea floor.
The mining vessels combine technology from oil rigs, dredging ships and even canneries to do their work. Although Namibia is considered the easiest place to extract offshore diamonds, mining executives are not ruling out exploring other stretches of ocean. Marine mining has also taken place off the coast of South Africa, though it has proven less lucrative.
“Never say never,” Cleaver said.
— Washington Post