ORANJEMUND – Namdeb’s chief operations officer (COO) Jurgen Jacob believes government’s decision to give Namdeb a royalty remission from 10% to 5% is a win-win situation. Through this remission, the mining giant will save an estimated N$1.5 billion, which it can then use to keep the mine open for longer than anticipated. 

“The N$1.5 billion we are now saving in the process will allow us to recapitalise our business model in the sense that we can explore new exploration opportunities to increase our productivity further,” he said.  

In terms of what the government can gain through this remission, he observed that the loss of revenue through the royalty remission will eventually earn government approximately N$40 billion in taxes and royalties.

Jacob is positive the mine has the ability to produce diamonds up to 2050. He provided this assurance when presenting the diamond mine’s Ramp-Up Plan during an investment conference at the recent Oranjemund Diamond Festival. 

“The new life of mine takes us to 2038, and this buys us time to do the necessary amount of exploration and project development to take the remainder of the journey to 2050,” he enthused.

Citing the entity’s vision, ‘The pride of Namibia’s mining – to 2050 and beyond’, Jacob was adamant that they have more than enough resources left in the ground to support it. 

“The onus is on us to devise clever, cost-effective ways of mining this resource efficiently and productively to sustain these operations,” he noted. 

Jacob added that the company definitely has the people and skills to carry out such operations.

Citing more positive aspects of the Life of Mine extension, he gave the assurance that more than 3 000 employees will have a job for the next 20 years as provided by Namdeb and other contractors operating at the mine. 

“Due to this positive initiative, we were able to redeploy all the workers from our recently-closed Deberas mine,” he continued. 

In terms of upcoming economic opportunities, more than 300 Hilux bakkies have to be converted from petrol to electric engines in the new future. 

“Housing is another challenge we are facing, as we want to employ more people but have no accommodation for them,” Jacob said. 

The COO believes many local procurement opportunities will now become available, while there is a golden opportunity to manufacture bricks from sand or clay, which is readily available at the diamond mining sites. 

“I urge property developers and banks to take hands and explore the opportunity of building houses,” he added. 

Jacob said it is Namdeb’s wish that when the day comes for the last diamond to be mined, the Oranjemund Town Council and other stakeholders will be in a position to take full control of the town through the successful transfer of properties and transition of services like health and education. 

They likewise envisage using modern systems and artificial intelligence to full effect to ensure maximum productivity.

“The entire northern portions of the mine are waiting for us to come back and find ways of extracting this resource. There are still vast areas of low-grade resources remaining that can be mined, but to do this, we need to change our paradigm completely,” he
said. 

Referring to his current term in office, Jacob said the last three years have been a roller-coaster ride. 

“At the start, Namdeb was facing a very uncertain future. Hence, we needed to restructure the business and reduce costs drastically to survive,” he stated. 

The senior manager said one of the biggest decisions taken was to stop accretion and reduce the life of mine to three years. 

“This decision, as well as the cost-saving initiatives, was the starting point towards a profitable operation,” he added. 

In 2018, it was the intention of Namdeb to close operations within the next three years, but the government came to the rescue by expanding the mine’s lifespan by another 20 years in 2021.

“We do, however, experience a lot of ups-and-downs, operational failures, setbacks and economic downstreams all these years, but it was our resilience that keeps us bouncing back,” he continued. 

Jacob added that it is in the DNA of Oranjemund to remain positive as a community, and withstand such challenges.

He said the mine now needs to extend its off-shore operations by pushing back 1.4 square kilometres into the sea level to secure optimal productivity. 

“At the end of the extended lifespan, we would have eight million carats of diamonds,” he informed stakeholders.