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Namibia’s marine diamond miner, Debmarine Namibia, reported on Monday a 13 per cent drop in production to 1.125 million carats in 2020 as the demand for diamonds weakened due to COVID-19.
Debmarine’s revenue fell by five per cent to 6.6 billion Namibian dollars ($440 million) while royalties and tax to the government decreased by six per cent to 2.1 billion Namibian dollars ($141 million), the company said.
The company’s CEO, Otto Shikongo, said the work on the diamond miner’s new ship, to be known as the AMV3 with the capacity to add 500,000 carats of annual production, was progressing well.
The construction of the ship is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2021 and the production from the vessel planned for the second quarter of 2022.
The Bank of Namibia estimated that diamond output was down 14.7 per cent in real terms in 2020 and will grow 2.8 per cent in 2021 and 16.9 per cent next year.
Debmarine Namibia, a subsidiary of Namdeb Holdings, is owned in equal shares by the government of Namibia and De Beers.
