The ancient ship was found iin the 'Sperrgebiet' or 'Forbidden Zone', where the company pushes back the Atlantic Ocean by building massive sea walls to search for diamonds.

Namdeb, a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government, said that the head of its Mineral Resource Department, Bob Burrell, had found some rounded copper ingots and the remains of three bronze cannons, on April 1.

"All mining operations were halted, the site secured and Dr Dieter Noli, an archaeologist and expert in the Sperrgebiet, was brought into the project and identified the cannons as 'Spanish Breach' - loaders of a type popular in the early 1500s," the company said.

The site yielded a wealth of objects, including six bronze cannons, several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins.

"If this proves to be a contemporary of the ships sailed by the likes of Diaz, Da Gama and Columbus, it would be of immense national and international interest and Namibia's most important archaeological find of the century," Namdeb said.

The discovery was made inside the Namdeb Mining Area 1, which is only accessible with permits issued by the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Government's Protective Resources Unit. This protective zone ensured that the wreck was secure, allowing it to be thoroughly researched.