School of Earth and Environment
Fabian Shaanika

Mining Ocean Diamonds

FABIAN SHAANIKA, BSc Geophysical Sciences, 1999 — Production Geology Manager

Fabian Shaanika attended high school at the Atlantic College in Wales but comes from a mining area on the west coast of Namibia. He needed a course and a university with a good reputation in order to obtain funding for his degree and Rio Tinto (Namibia) were happy to sponsor him at Leeds.

“I applied for Geophysical Sciences because I’d enjoyed both Physical
Geography and Physics at high school,” says Fabian, “and it was certainly the right choice”. He found the programme demanding, but still had time to have fun and make friends. “I played for the Afro-Caribbean football team, and we won the Intra-mural league. Leeds taught me that education is about more than qualifications.”

Fabian loved fieldwork, especially the final-year trip to Huelva (Spain), and
collecting magnetic and electromagnetic data in Namibia for his final year project on potential field methods.

“After graduation I worked in airborne geophysics for a year, before joining De Beers Marine Namibia.” Fabian now has an MSc in Geophysics from Durham and a Diploma in Management and Leadership from London Business School, and is studying part-time for an MSc in Mineral Resource Management from the University of Pretoria.

Fabian is responsible for providing geological assistance to De Beers’ Atlantic off-shore diamond-mining operations and ensuring that production targets are met sustainably and responsibly. “The mining vessels are hundreds of kilometres from head office, so our day starts with a video conference call, then I address production matters that need immediate attention, and work
on longer-term projects. Fabian also took a Communication Skills module “which seemed a bit irrelevant at the time, but it’s been really valuable.”
Fabian’s next career move could be into senior management in marine diamondmining, and he is also considering a switch to the Oil and Gas industry. “I’ve been looking at PhD Programmes at Leeds too — so I might be coming back there!”