For years oil was the big commodity found offshore. These days diamond giant De Beers finds some of its most valuable gems on the Atlantic Ocean seabed off the coast of Namibia.
They are literally vacuuming them off the ocean floor.
The world’s biggest diamond producer has spent $157 million on a state-of-the-art exploration vessel that will scour 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) of ocean floor for gems, an area about 65 percent bigger than Long Island. The Anglo American Plc unit mines in the area in a 50-50 joint venture with the Namibian government.