LEADING diamond mine Namdeb revealed this week that they will resume production in July in line with their pledge despite declining retail sales of diamonds in the major markets.

Namdeb Group Manager for External and Corporate Affairs Hilifa Mbako told Informanté that the company will resume diamond mining in July, although there are no clear indications of how the diamond prices would be then.
“Preparations for return to production are well on course. Employees will undergo a re-orientation process of up to three weeks before production actually resumes. This will especially entail aspects of safety at work,” Mbako said.
In March, Namdeb took a three month production holiday after the current global financial crisis weighed down the global diamond market which struggled to sell the precious stones profitably.
As a result, all the company’s workers involved in production were sent home on a three month paid leave leaving only about 260 employees at work.
Mbako explained that Namdeb’s move to ask workers to go on production holiday was in view of maintaining a favourable cash flow.
“There were no anticipated losses in respect of production interruption. The three months interruption is part of a strategy to preserve cash in the business especially saving on costly inputs such as fuel and electricity,” he said.
He added that the resumption of Namdeb’s production activities, after the production holiday, was not necessarily meant to coincide with any improved diamond market.
Quizzed on what were the company’s plans to reclaim its status as the country’s most profitable mining company, Mbako said: “I can confirm that Namdeb’s production for the year will be dictated by demand. Given the reduced demand for diamonds – it follows that the final production numbers will be less than what would have been originally planned.”
“When recovery comes... the lower cost base that we have got in place now, together with the extra efforts we have made in terms of our operations, put us in a really good position.  We are going to come out of this in a stronger position than when we went into it in terms of our organisation and our cost base, and when that happens it will allow us to get refocused on our long term vision, which is one with a lot of excitement,” Mbako said.