De Beers Marine Namibia (Debmarine) has secured NAD 5.6bn ($393m) of finance for the world's first custom-built diamond mining ship.
The Idex website reported that Bank Windhoek, Standard Bank Namibia, RMB Namibia and South Africa's Absa Bank joined with Nedbank Namibia to provide the cash, with Debmarine contributing another NAD 1.4bn.
The $468m vessel was ordered earlier this year at Damen Shipyards in the Netherlands.
The crawler diamond recovery unit will be Debmarine's biggest ship at 177 metres in length.
It includes a dynamic positioning system (DP2) based on a seven-thruster propulsion system powered by six generators of 3,230 eKW each.
The contract is Damen's first with the shipowner and it was won because of the space offered at its new Mangalia yard in Romania.
This yard has also allowed Damen to break into cruiseships.
The new unit will be the seventh ship in the Debmarine fleet and will deliver its first diamonds in the second quarter of 2022.
