Introduction

Namakwa Diamonds is the only quoted vertically integrated diamond mining company. Its strategy of backward integration from its 30 years of beneficiation experience into mining has created a unique public investment proposition. Namakwa Diamonds has a diversified portfolio of diamond projects, which include five distinct diamond resource target areas. These are located in four African countries, namely; South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and Angola. Namakwa’s projects are located within historically prospective geological environments. Alluvial diamond deposits, including marine, constitute the primary focus of the company, whilst kimberlite opportunities will be considered if they represent an advanced stage of development, consistent with Namakwa’s philosophy of a short resource delivery time as provided by its alluvial diamond mines.

Namakwa continues to pursue its strategy to drive growth and secure its supply of high value rough diamonds, to strengthen its position within the value chain.  This strategy is becoming increasingly important in the context of:

  • decreasing global supplies of quality rough diamonds and an increase in consumer demand, resulting in diamond beneficiating companies increasingly facing a shortage of quality rough diamonds; and
  • the changing legislative environment in African diamond producing countries, where governments are increasingly requiring diamond mining companies to beneficiate new production in the country of origin.

In order to implement this vertically integrated strategy, the Namakwa Group and its management team of leading alluvial diamond geologists, mining specialists, metallurgists and diamantaires have acquired a portfolio of mining and prospecting assets that are either currently in production or can be brought into production within a short time frame in South Africa, Angola, the DRC and Namibia.  These assets have been targeted to complement the established trading and beneficiation business of Namakwa, further details of which are described in the Operations section of the website. 

Diamond industry value chain

The traditional diamond industry value chain
(ex De Beers)