Debmarine seeks board approval for new mining ship in its fleet
If the Debmarine board gives the green light, the company will have another mining vessel in the water within four years. This will be the longest mining ship in the Debmarine, stable outdoing the previous record holder by some two metres.
The offshore diamond miner announced this week it will seek board approval for the N$2 billion outlay once the feasibility study has been approved. The initial investment is only for the ship. Once it nears end of construction, anticipated to be at the end of 2021, the specialised crawlers and other technology pertinent to marine diamond mining, will be fitted.
Debmarine said this week the project has progressed so far that a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed already with the same ship builders in Norway who constructed the SS Nujoma, the brand new exploration and sampling vessel commissioned by Debmarine earlier this year.
For the designated builder, Kleven Verft AS located in Ulsteinvik in Norway, this will be the longest vessel thus far to come out of their shipyard.
“The new offshore vessel will work alongside the other five Debmarine Namibia mining vessels, mv Mafuta, mv Debmar Atlantic, mv Debmar Pacific, mv Grand Banks and mv !Gariep, supported by a charted mining vessel mv Coral Sea,” stated the marine diamond miner.
At a length of 176 metres the new ship will be slightly larger than the current largest vessel, mv Mafuta at 174 m. Additionally, the new vessel will be built with the latest marine technology and will have full dynamic positioning capabilities. Similar to mv SS Nujoma, the new offshore vessel will be an MT 6027 vessel designed by Marin Teknikk.
“Notwithstanding, the potential challenges in the sense that this will be the first time that Debmarine Namibia constructs a mining vessel from scratch, [Debmarine] will focus on quality, timely delivery, cost containment and safe execution. We have confidence in the specialised ability of the contracted partner Kleven Verft AS managed through our project team and technical partners at De Beers Marine South Africa,” said Debmarine Namibia Chief Executive, Otto Shikongo.
