A 500-year-old ship-wreck laden with treasure has been discovered off the coast of Namibia.

While one usually associates the diamond business with mines, there are companies who hunt for gems in the open sea. A popular hunting ground is the coast of Namibia, where ships comb the sandy sea bottom in hopes of sucking up diamonds that were washed offshore in ages gone past.

De Beers is one such company and it announced a significant find on Wednesday — though not of diamonds. The company believes it has located a treasure ship that could date back to the 15th century. The ship was laden with thousands of gold coins and a hoard of more than 50 elephant tusks.

“If the experts’ assessments are correct, the shipwreck could date back to the late 1400s or early 1500s, making it a discovery of global significance,” said Namdeb Diamond Corp., a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government. Company sources are speculating that the ship may be linked to Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, who went missing in 1500 after becoming the first European seafarer to round the Cape of Good Hope.

Company spokesman Hilifa Mbako said the Portuguese government had been alerted and they expected a team of experts to be dispatched to the site shortly for further investigations. “The shipwreck holds more questions than answers,” he said.

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