DE BEERS Marine is negotiating for the renewal of its licence for a longer period than five years. Debmarine, whose contract with Namdeb for the recovery of sea diamonds expires at the end of the year, is a subsidiary of De Beers and accounts for close to 40% of Namdeb’s total annual diamond output — of the 1275 million carats produced by Namdeb last year, 497000 carats were recovered from the sea by Debmarine. General manager Paul Dixon-Savage said recently negotiations with Namdeb were already underway. Debmarine has also applied for diamond concessions off the Angolan coast. As diamonds onshore diminish, Namibia’s future as a diamond producing giant lies with the offshore deep water operations. Debmarine is the only company in the world that mines diamonds at depths consistently over 100m.