Underwater diamond harvest:

Discovery

Kali

Chideme

A vast mechanical monster rises from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Namibia, leaving a huge swell in its wake as seawater pours off its surface.

The 285-tonne giant, dubbed “the butcher” by its operators, is diamond miner De Beers’ hi-tech tool to collect the precious stones.

After several hours of maintenance, the deep-sea vacuum is lowered again into the water on steel cables from the Mafuta vessel.

It dredges the ocean bed, sucking thousands of tonnes of silt and sediment onto the ship to be sifted for diamonds.

Diminishing returns from its mines in the arid Namib desert prompted De Beers to plot an off-shore future.

A flotilla of five vessels armed with undersea suction devices have been scouring the Atlantic seabed for more than 10 years in pursuit of stones washed out to sea by Namibia’s Oranje river.

Their initial haul of deep-sea diamonds was a world first, and surprised even the experts leading the project.

Last year Debmarine Namibia, a jointventure half-owned by De Beers and by the Namibian government, produced 1.2 million carats-worth of diamonds — two thirds of Namibia’s total haul.

“Onshore operations are at a crossroads,” said De Beers Namibia resident director Daniel Kali.

“We believe there’s still value in diamonds to be extracted onshore but it will require massive capital investments. Offshore I think there’s definitely a long future ahead.”

The Mafuta diamond mining vessel can be reached with a short helicopter ride from the Oranjenmund mining hub on Namibia’s southern tip.

The vessel is 170-metres long, 33-metres high and has a crew of 98.

“It’s the largest marine diamonds mining vessel in the world,” said Mafuta captain Justin Barrett.

“The Mafuta produces almost 50 percent of Debmarine Namibia’s annual produc-