JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diamond-miner De Beers said on Thursday that it had received approaches from potential investors interested in buying the company's troubled Namaqualand and Finsch diamond mines in the Northern Cape.

De Beers, whose CEO Gareth Penny is stepping down, said in May that 350 Finsch mine jobs out of 903 could be shed at Finsch, and production at Namaqualand was suspended three months ago. A restructuring is under way at Finsch to avoid losing R200-million a year.

The London Aim-listed Petra Diamonds has bought five former De Beers diamond mines in past few years, including the Cullinan, Koffiefontein, Kimberley Underground mines in South Africa and the Williamson mine in Tanzania.

De Beers said that interest in Finsch and Namaqualand had arisen on the back of the recovery in the diamond market.

The company said that it would be undertaking a systematic review process in order to assess the expressions of interest appropriately.

The process would involve the evaluation of offers from companies with good mining track records, and strong black economic-empowerment credentials.

Interested parties would also have to satisfy other economic, social and environmental criteria when formulating their submissions.

"We have had approaches from companies interested in discussing the future of the mines and we have decided to invite separate expressions of interest in each mine through a select tender process," said De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) acting CEO Barend Petersen.

Anticipating that the process would extend well into 2011, Petersen added that production at Finsch would continue as planned, and that economic development and environmental rehabilitation projects would also be ongoing at Namaqualand, where production was suspended in April.

DBCM said that Finsch had significant underground resources, and that Namaqualand had alluvial reserves that could result in the mines operating into the next decade "at least" for the benefit of Northern Cape province.

The factors impacting on Finsch's profitability were high costs, declining Block 4 grades and rand strength.

DBCM said earlier this year that it was exploring intercompany transfers, voluntary early retirement, voluntary retrenchment packages and other opportunities for reasonable alternative employment for Finsch personnel.

DBCM's four remaining South African operations are the flagship Venetia diamond mine in Limpopo province, Voorspoed in Free State province, Kimberley Mines in Northern Cape province and the South African Sea Areas marine mining offshore venture.