The Sperrgebiet operation near Ludersitz holds an estimated 10.5 million carats of diamond resources, 6.3 million carats onshore and 4.2 million carats offshore, across licenses covering about 245,364 hectares of the restricted diamond mining area. Kenzoll says the partnership will also explore and extract heavy mineral sands and critical metals on the licenses, which have not previously been explored, and describes diamonds as an entry point for future critical-minerals investment.
Kenzoll Capital, an Amsterdam-based private equity and special situations investor, has already deployed more than US$10 million in Namibia. Chief executive Corne Melissen said the firm is committed to getting the mine producing again, providing jobs and economic value to an area that has relied heavily on diamonds for over a century.
Elizabeth Bay has a mining history dating back to 1911, following the discovery of diamonds near Kolmanskop in 1908. Namdeb, the 50:50 joint venture between the Namibian government and De Beers, placed the mine on care and maintenance in September 2018 after concluding it could no longer operate economically. De Beers began a disposal process in 2018, and the sale completed in 2019 to a consortium with Lewcor Group as majority owner and MSF Commercials as minority shareholder. The mine has spent most of the past eight years out of action.
The restart comes as Namibia’s diamond industry slumps. Diamond exports fell 67 percent from N$5.1 billion in 2022 to N$1.7 billion in 2025, and the Bank of Namibia has identified weakness in the diamond industry as a risk to economic growth.