A joint venture between De Beers and the government of Namibia, an African nation, has resulted in the opening of mines which were operated by Namdeb. Very soon the trucks are scheduled to start rolling over again in that region.
Namdeb had stopped its production at all its six mines, including its Mining Area No.1, Bogenfels, Elizabeth Bay, Douglas Bay, Orange River and Atlantic 1--for a three-month period as of April 1, reason being the impact of the global economic crisis on the diamond industry. All this resulted in the "production interruption."
The shutdown was just not limited to closure of mines; it extended to all Namdeb operations, excluding the hospitals, school and the Oranjemund Town Management Co., however all the employees were still receiving their normal salaries during this period, a release issued about the stoppage stated.
De Beers’ spokeswoman, Lynette Gould said that Namdeb still is due to go back to work July 1, as originally planned. A similar shutdown was done by De Beers at its mines in the neighboring country of Botswana, which was a joint venture between De Beers and the government of Botswana, namely Debswana.
The country experienced four such similar shut downs earlier this year for a period of 50 days.
During the last few weeks on April, De Beers announced that it was restarting three of the four mines in Botswana and the fourth mine at Damtshaa will remain closed for the rest of the year.
As of now there is no proper news whether all six Namdeb mines would restart its production on July 1, or any of its mines would remain closed for the rest of the year.
Gould said that De Beers determined that it would reduce its overall rough diamond production by 40 percent in 2009 as a result of the global economic situations. She also added that it is up to the individual managers of Namdeb and Botswana to decide how and when to adjust the production levels in order to meet this goal.
