This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 15 in 2022. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
The CEO’s words in December 2021 foreshadowed the move: «Angola has made significant progress toward creating a stable and more predictable investment environment in which the Angolan people can directly benefit from increased foreign direct investment».
Undoubtedly, the Angolan government’s change of course has made the conditions ripe for more miners to enter the domestic diamond mining industry. De Beers had been forced to leave Angola in 2012 following disputes with ex-President Dos Santos’ administration.
The breakthrough come after as many as 30 meetings in between October 2021 and April 2022; the De Beers Group announced the signing of two Mining Investment Contracts (MICs) with Endiama, the Angolan state-owned diamond company that will hold a 10 percent stake in each mining project, with plans to increase it to a maximum of 20 percent.
The first licensed area is the Muconda project (Lunda Sul), where an initial investment of $26 million has been planned, and a five-year exploration phase is scheduled.
At Lumboma (Lunda Norte), the initial investment amounts to $7.2 million, holding existing rights for primary and secondary deposits pre-reserved upon request.
IGR has already addressed the transition of Angola, the world’s seventh-largest diamond producer (8 million carats in 2020, 23% less than originally planned and down from 9.4 million carats in 2019 due to the global economic collapse caused by the Covid-19 pandemic), from a typically state-controlled mining system to a new policy involving a deeper relationship with the international market. Not coincidentally, De Beers’ announcement comes at a time when the ambitious project of a diamond bourse in Luanda is under development.
Gem News published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #15, Autumn 2022
