They were discovered by a railroad worker named Zacharia Lewala near Lüderitz in 1908, a discovery that prompted a diamond rush and set Namibia on the path of becoming a leading diamond nation. We process material there from small land-based operations at Douglas Bay as well.ĭiamonds have been a fundamental part of Namibia’s economy for more than 100 years.
The gravels, screened and bagged at sea, are taken to our Contractors Treatment Facility near Lüderitz for further processing. Marine contractors work with divers to recover gravel from the seabed at depths of seven to 30m. We supplement our land-based recovery with beach and shallow water near-shore recovery. At Elizabeth Bay, we remove finer-grained sands to recover diamonds from thin layers of diamond-bearing material. Our northern coastal operations between Elizabeth Bay and Lüderitz include land-based and coastal operations in a coastal strip known as the surf zone. We find fewer but larger stones in the south and a higher concentration of smaller stones to the north. The vigorous sorting action of wind and waves, pushing diamond-bearing gravels north along the coast, has created a natural variation in the grades of ore we treat. The ancient bed of the Orange River, extending inland about 50km, is an important source of diamond-bearing gravels.
The southern coastal area reaches from the mouth of the Orange River, near Oranjemund, north to Chameis Bay, a distance of about 100km.ĭiamonds are found in raised Pleistocene beaches from 25m below mean sea level to more than 30m above. Two million years ago, reflecting the impact of prevailing winds, currents and tides, diamonds were carried westward along the ancient course of the Orange River and northward along Namibia’s Atlantic beaches. The deposits along the country’s coast and ancient river beds are so rich that early prospectors could sometimes find diamonds glittering on the sandy surface of valley floors. We recover diamonds from Namibia’s northern and southern coastal regions.