Debmarine Namibia’s Chief Executive Officer, Willy Mertens, says the marine diamond miner, spends approximately N$3 billion annually on vessel maintenance, accounting for approximately 50% of the company’s overall costs.
The maintenance budget covers a range of activities essential for keeping the vessels seaworthy.
“If I talk about 50% of our cost, I talk about something close to N$3 billion; that’s our total maintenance budget per annum,” Mertens exclusivley told M&E.
Debmarine operates seven production vessels, each with a three-year maintenance cycle.
“Maintenance includes changing of worn-out parts, painting of the vessel, making the vessel, and keeping the vessel seaworthy. I remember we have about 60 to 80 people who stay on the vessel for 28 days at a time,” said Mertens.
He said one of their largest producers, the Mafuta, underwent standard plant maintenance in early May and is expected to return to service by the end of June.
This extensive maintenance investment comes amid a decrease in De Beers Group’s production in Namibia, which fell by 8% to 0.6 million carats in the second quarter of 2024 due to planned vessel maintenance at Debmarine Namibia.
This decline was partially offset by the planned mining of higher-grade areas at Namdeb.
Additionally, De Beers Group reported an 11% drop in diamond recovery to 0.56 million carats for its Namibian operations in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter.
“Hence, the second quarter production was lower compared to the first quarter this year as well as the second quarter in the prior year. So it’s just the end of maintenance,” Mertens said.
Despite the temporary drop in production, Mertens is confident that annual targets will be met.
“The overall production, we think we are still within our guidance of what we agreed at the beginning of the year because we had planned that specific maintenance. Just when you compare it to the prior quarter or the prior year, you will see that difference. But it is planned.”
Mertens highlighted that the complexity and scale of maintenance vary significantly depending on the type of vessel and the necessary repairs.
“If you can imagine taking your car every three years for maintenance and you have to replace parts that you’ve used the past three years, it’s quite a sizable number. It depends on the type of vessel and the items that we have to change out as well as what we call discovery work,” Mertens explained.
“It’s very difficult to pinpoint an exact number, but it’s significant.”
The CEO prides that safety remains a top priority in Debmarine’s maintenance operations.
“We need to make sure that they are safe because that’s not even a priority; we put safety first. If something has to be changed, we have to change it for safety’s sake. We don’t take shortcuts when it comes to safety,” emphasised Mertens.
According to the latest diamond production figures from De Beers, vessel maintenance at Debmarine Namibia affected rough diamond production to decrease, reporting a recovery of 0.43 million carats in Q2 2024, down 15% from Q1 2024’s 0.51 million carats and Q2 2023’s 0.50 million carats.
Debmarine’s total recovery for H1 2024 was 0.93 million carats, a 7% decrease from 1.00 million carats in H1 2023.-miningandenergy.com.na
