Corp. (Pty.) Ltd., which was a joint venture between De Beers Centenary AG and the Namibian Government, with each having 50%, was the country’s leading diamond producer. During 2006, Namdeb, its contractors, and its subsidiaries produced more than . The partners also negotiated the Namdeb Sales Agreement in 2006, which created the Namibia Diamond Trading Co., to sort and value the volume of Namdeb’s production that would be marketed to the domestic diamond-cutting industry. Granite Granite is mined in Walvis Bay. Iron Lodestone’s Dordabis iron ore mine is a small mine that produced 4,000 tons of low-grade iron ore when it started in 2015. It is Namibia’s only iron mine and also produces magnetite and hematite products. Ohorongo uses the magnetite of this mine for cement manufacturing. Lodestone mine yielded 91,000 tons of iron ore between 2015 and 2022. Lead and zinc Contributing to the decline in Namibian zinc output in 2006 was the nearly 3-week fire-related suspension of zinc metal production operations at the Skorpion zinc facility and a strike at the Rosh Pinah Mine for higher wages, which lasted for about 2 weeks and adversely affected lead and zinc concentrate production. Kumba Resources Ltd. of South Africa proposed to reduce its 89.5% equity interest in Rosh Pinah to about 50%. A local investor group, which included PE Minerals (Namibia) (Pty.) Ltd., was expected to acquire Kumba’s divested interest. Marble Marble is mined near Karibib. Petroleum Offshore petroleum activity included exploration on Block 1711 by the joint venture of Z.A.O. Sintezneftegas of Russia (70%), Petroleum, Oil & Gas Corp. of South Africa (PetroSA) (10%), EnerGulf Resources Inc. of the United States (10%), and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) (7%). Onshore exploration included that of the joint venture of Circle Oil Namibia Ltd. (90%) and NAMCOR (10%). In 2006, Mitusi Atlantic Energy BV (15%) joined the joint venture of BHP of Australia (75%) and PetroSA (10%), which held Blocks 2813A, 2814B, and 2914. Phosphate The Sandpiper phosphate mine is a planned activity on the seabed of the Atlantic off the shore of Walvis Bay. An exploration license has been granted in 2011 but an environmental clearance certificate for Sandpiper was revoked in 2017. Salt Salt is produced at the Atlantic coast of Namibia through solar evaporation of sea water. There are two major producers. Walvis Bay Salt produces around 1 million tons per annum, both for the chemical