China asked to help in African mining

An anonymous source with China Minmetals said although the company has businesses in 15 countries, Namibia is not one of them.

So far, China Minmetals has copper, iron ore and alumina businesses in African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritania and Jamaica.

Monazite, an ore with rare-earth elements, on the Skeleton Coast of western Namibia, was found to be of higher quality than the monazite in many other areas because of its unique geological condition, said Ragubathi.

Ragubathi feels that the support of the Malaysian government and the Namibian government as well as the support and participation of China is crucial.

"I need technology, technical support and specialized equipment that China can provide,"he said.

China is the largest rare-earth user and producer in the world. It has a proven reserve of about 18.59 million metric tons, accounting for about 23 percent of the known global reserve and supplying up to 95 percent of world demand.

Rare earths, a group of 17 elements, are essential in the manufacture of an array of high-tech products. They are getting increasingly important in electronic devices used in the defense, alternative energy and communications industries.

At present, the United States and Japan are the two top importers of China's rare-earth resources. The latter's imports of the resources have a dependency on China's supply of more than 60 percent.

In addition to the strategic resource, Ragubathi said there are potentially big reserves of gold, platinum and uranium in the four leases, which still require further geological study.

They have uncovered and mined thousands of carats of diamonds as well as identified about 57 million carats of diamonds in less than 10 percent of the 85,000 hectares covered by just one of the four leases, Toscanini.

"The deposit of diamonds within the Toscanini lease is considered to be one of the biggest deposits of diamonds in history, if not the biggest. It is an alluvial deposit with 95 to 98 percent gem quality, which places the diamonds among the best quality in the world,"said Ragubathi.

China has been the second-largest diamond buyer in the world after the US since 2009.

People in China have a growing enthusiasm for diamonds when getting married as Western traditions increase in popularity and become more widely accepted.

The Shanghai Diamond Exchange became the fourth-largest diamond exchange in the world in 2011 with a total trading value of $4.7 billion.