Alewijnse to Equip Diamond Mining Ship

Alewijnse reports it has been awarded a contract to perform the complete electrical installation on board what will be the world’s newest and largest offshore diamond recovery vessel. Designated an additional mining vessel (AMV) by its owner De Beers Marine Namibia (Pty) Ltd, the ship will be the seventh member of the fleet of operator Debmarine Namibia.

Alewijnse said it is once again working with the Damen Shipyards Group, this time at Damen Shipyard Mangalia in Romania. The first steel was cut for the vessel in May 2019 and now Alewijnse is preparing to start work on board. A team of over 200 skilled technicians will work on the project until December 2020, and the vessel is due to begin work off the coast of Namibia in 2022.

The AMV3 is a complex vessel, and the build involves partners from the mining industry as well as the maritime sector. Its function demands a wide array of sophisticated systems requiring electrical power, control and monitoring. Paramount among these is the latest subsea crawling technology that recovers the diamonds from the seabed. This involves a 300-metric-ton crawler machine which deploys a mechanical arm that moves in a horizontal arc, dredging material from the sea floor immediately below the hull at depths of around 130 meters. A large onboard processing plant then sifts the dredged gravel on board the ship, removing the diamonds and sealing them in metal canisters. Another large and complex system is the seven thruster, DP2 dynamic positioning system that will be powered by six generators of 3,230 ekW each.

(Image: Alewijnse)