By Desie Heita
Windhoek
Oranjemund is hanging on a thread of an environmental impact assessment on two projects for land-based diamond mining that Namdeb hopes would infuse life and extend the lifespan of the Oranjemund land mining area.
Namdeb has been sounding alarms for the past decade that its land mining operations are drying up. Current estimates for land-based diamond deposits give a lifespan of another 12 years up to 2020, after which it may have to eventually pull out of the Oranjemund land mining area.
The two identified projects are in the current mining area, with the first being inshore within Mining Area 1, covering the beach area, which Namdeb has in the past thought is impossible to mine. The second project covers the entire breadth of Namdeb’s seven mining areas from Mining Area 1, including Elizabeth Bay Mine, all the way through to L?