9 November 2026 — Chrimson Consultants

What Namibia produces

Material	Where	Who buys	Form
Tourmaline (including bi-colour and green)	Erongo pegmatites around Usakos, Karibib, Omaruru	Cutters in Thailand, India, Germany, US; collectors	Rough by the gram or kilogram; specimens by the piece
Aquamarine, topaz, fluorite, schorl	Erongo Mountain	Specimen dealers, cutters	Specimens and rough
Quartz, amethyst, prehnite	Brandberg, Goboboseb	Collectors, wholesalers	Specimens, clusters
Dioptase, azurite, cerussite, mimetite	Tsumeb (historic), Kaokoveld	High-end collectors and museums	Specimens; Tsumeb material mostly from old collections
Garnet, rose quartz, sodalite, agate	Various	Lapidary trade, decorative	Rough by the tonne or kilogram
Marble (white and coloured)	Karibib	Italian, Spanish and Chinese processors	Blocks by the cubic metre
Granite and other dimension stone	Several districts	Processors	Blocks

Who sells legally

Small-scale miners hold claims registered with the Mines directorate and sell rough and specimens to registered dealers in Swakopmund, Usakos, Omaruru and Windhoek, who export; some miners export directly. Dimension stone is quarried under mining licences by a handful of companies that sell block programmes to processors. The Small Miners Association represents the producers, and the tourist markets at Uis, Usakos and along the coast sell retail quantities. A buyer's first question to any seller is the same: which claim or licence did this come from, and can you show me?

The paperwork that makes a parcel safe to buy

1. Proof of rights: the seller's claim or licence, or the licensed holder they bought from, with purchase records.
2. Royalty return for the consignment, at the rate the Minerals Act sets for the class of mineral.
3. Mineral export permit from the Mining Commissioner naming the minerals, quantities, values and buyer.
4. Valuation, independent for higher-value parcels, that matches the permit and the invoice.
5. Certificate of origin from the chamber of commerce, and an invoice and packing list that agree with everything above.

Under-declared values are the commonest problem in this trade. They expose the buyer to customs penalties on import and the seller to prosecution; a parcel whose permit, invoice and valuation agree is worth paying slightly more for.

Pricing and shipping

Material	How it is priced	How it ships
Gem rough	Per gram or per carat by quality, often after the buyer's own grading of a parcel	Insured courier with documents inside; copies ahead to the buyer's agent
Specimens	Per piece, by aesthetics, size, rarity and provenance	Insured courier or hand-carried with an export permit and declaration
Lapidary rough	Per kilogram or tonne	Sea freight in drums or crates from Walvis Bay
Dimension stone blocks	Per cubic metre by quality class, often after a quarry visit	Breakbulk or flat-rack containers from Walvis Bay to Italy, Spain, China, Turkey

Where to buy

• The shows: Tucson (January to February), Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (June) and Munich (October), where Namibian dealers exhibit with permits in hand.
• In Namibia: registered dealers in Swakopmund and Windhoek, and quarry visits for stone; buying at the roadside is buying without paperwork.
• Through a sourcing agent who verifies the claim, the permit and the royalty before you pay, which is what we do.

Valuing a parcel before you commit

Gem rough from Namibia is sold as parcels: a bag of tourmaline from one pocket, a lot of aquamarine crystals from one claim. The seller's price is for the parcel, and the buyer's job is to estimate what will come out of it. Three numbers decide that: the proportion of the parcel that is cuttable, the likely yield from rough to cut weight (often 20 to 35% for tourmaline, lower for heavily included material), and the price per carat the cut stones will fetch in your market by colour, clarity and size. A parcel priced at a gram rate that looks cheap against finished stones is often expensive once yield is applied. Specimens are valued differently, piece by piece, on aesthetics, damage, matrix, locality and provenance; a documented Erongo pocket with a known find date is worth more than an identical piece with no story.

Step	Gem rough	Specimens	Dimension stone
Inspection	Sort the parcel under daylight-equivalent light; separate cuttable, cabochon and specimen grades	Check for repairs, glued matrix, trimmed damage	Quarry visit; sample slabs polished to show veining and soundness
Testing	Refractive index and spectroscopy to confirm species and detect treatment	Identity of the species; locality by association	Compression, absorption, abrasion tests to EN or ASTM standards
Yield	Estimate cut weight and sizes per cuttable grade	Not applicable	Block recovery to usable slab area
Price check	Against your own cut-stone sales by grade	Against recent show and auction prices for the locality	Against Italian and Chinese market prices for comparable stone

Red flags

• No claim or licence number, or a photograph of a document instead of a number you can check with the Mines directorate.
• An invoice value far below the permit value, or a seller who offers to "help with customs" by lowering the declared value.
• Tsumeb specimens in quantity: the mine closed in 1996 and genuine material comes from old collections, not fresh supply.
• Heated or oiled rough sold as natural; Namibian tourmaline and aquamarine are usually untreated, so treatment is a sign of mixed-origin parcels.
• Pressure to pay by untraceable means before the export permit exists.

A first purchase, step by step

1. Tell the seller or your agent what you cut or sell, so the parcel assembled suits your market rather than the seller's leftovers.
2. Agree the permit route: who applies for the mineral export permit, in whose name, and who pays the royalty.
3. Inspect or have the parcel inspected, with photographs and weights, before the deposit.
4. Pay a deposit against the permit application and the balance against the courier waybill and permit copy.
5. Clear on import with the invoice, permit and certificate of origin, declaring the full value; most gemstones and specimens enter the EU, UK and US at zero or low duty.

Questions buyers ask us

Can we buy from small-scale miners directly? Yes, if they hold a claim and the export is done legally in their name or a registered dealer's. Many do not hold claims; that is the risk.

Are Namibian gemstones treated? Most rough is untreated; buyers should specify and test as they would from any origin.

What about diamonds? Not through this channel. Namibian diamonds move through the Diamond Act and Kimberley Process system only.

How we help buyers of Namibian minerals and stone

Chrimson Consultants registers Namibia's exporters, so we know which minerals and stone suppliers hold their permits and which do not. For international buyers we source from verified suppliers at 4% of the FOB shipment value, invoiced when the export documents are handed over. No retainer, no exclusivity, no margin on the goods. Supplier verification (business registration, exporter registration, sector permits, tax standing, a previous shipment's documents) is at our cost, and we run the export paperwork for every consignment so the documents arrive complete and the goods clear.

Send a buyer enquiry with the specification, volume, Incoterm and timing. We reply within one working day with what is available and what we have verified. Namibian producers reading this: tell us what you have; buyer enquiries are matched to verified suppliers first.

Sources

• Ministry of Industrialisation, Mines and Trade: mineral rights, royalties and export permits
• Minerals (Prospecting and Mining) Act 33 of 1992
• Mineralogical Record: Erongo and Tsumeb localities
• Kimberley Process (diamonds, excluded)

Sources accessed 8 November 2026. Volumes, prices, duties and rules move: confirm with the organisation named before you commit.

Need help registering your business in Namibia?

Chrimson Consultants handles company registration, BIPA compliance, NAMRA tax registration, and tender-readiness for Namibian businesses. Contact us today.