Diamonds bounty a long time coming
OOM Floors Strauss was among those who led the historic Richtersveld land claim, one of South Africa’s biggest, about a decade ago.
During the 1920s, the ancestors of the claimants were booted off the diamond-rich land along the west coast of Namaqualand, now part of Northern Cape.
But, like many in his community, the 55-year old father of two has since 2008 received only two restitution payments, one of R3 000 and the other of R1 500.
The wealth they were expecting to reap from the diamond-rich land they were dispossessed of somehow never made its way to the 3 000 members of the communities of Sanddrift, Kuboes, Eksteenfontein and Lekkersing.
Part of the problem is that Strauss and his community own a 49% stake in the company now mining the area — the stateowned Alexkor, which has stumbled from bail-out to bail-out, seemingly never able to make a decent enough profit to help the community.
Alexkor has become the posterchild of critics of nationalisation, who point out that since becoming government-owned it has barely put a cent in the bank.
Strauss, however, believes the community’s ship is about to come in, quite literally.
A R1.5-million-a-day deep-sea mining vessel is reportedly on its way to Alexcor to boost production at the embattled diamond mine.
This will bring a welcome turnaround in the mine’s fortunes.
After the land claim was settled in 2007, Alexkor almost went bankrupt. With no dividends from the project, people starved.
Diamond production fell to a measly 30 000 carats a year from the 200 000 carats a year of Alexkor’s heyday.
So the company’s bosses started relying on government bail-outs to keep things going.
On Wednesday, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba and several other suits flew to the area for the formal opening of the new processing plant, Muisvlak.
The Muisvlak plant has so far raised production from an average of about 30 000 carats a year to more than 50 000. The expansion of the facility is on the cards.
Gigaba said: “Alexkor has turned the corner, and will continue to post profits as mining production increases.
“We expect positive results in this financial year as well, which will be higher than those they posted in the past year.
“This is good for the communities of Richtersveld,” he said.
Two years ago, a mere 88 people in the community were employed at the mine. But today there are up to 231, and the arrival of the deepsea mining vessel is likely to bring more jobs to the area.
At one stage, the mine employed more than 1 500 people.
Alexkor has concluded a mining agreement with International Mining and Dredging SA, one of only two companies worldwide with the necessary deep-sea mining capabilities, and it will increase output for the company.
This is one of the efforts aimed at turning the struggling company into a significant player in diamond mining.
Rafique Bagus, chairman of the Alexkor board formed in October 2012, said that International Mining and Dredging would need about $148 000 (R1.5-million) a day to run the vessel.
“Theywould have to mine 15 000 carats of diamonds a month to break even, but they are confident that they are going to do better than that,” Bagus said.
Alexkor would not be contribut- ing to the cost of the vessel’s operation, he said.
“International Mining and Dredging wouldn’t put such an investment at risk if they weren’t sure they were going to be successful,” Bagus said.
With Muisvlak and deep-sea mining, Alexkor’s management team believes it can turn things around.
Said Bagus: “Since the new board took over, the company has not requested further government funding, and does not intend doing [so] in the foreseeable future.
“Alexkor is on its way to standing on its own feet for the first time in 11 years.”
The land-claim deal made provision for R190-million to be invested on behalf of the community. There were restrictions on the uses to which the money could be put. Now there are talks between the government and the community to amend the deed of settlement to allow for a once-off cash payment of R25 000 to each of the beneficiaries.
Alexkor is due to declare a dividend, and that will go to the community.
Strauss said that his people were looking forward to a period of “growth and prosperity”.
They hope, he said, that their land will finally be able to change their fortunes.