The prospects for production and revenue collection for 2022 were advanced this Monday by the chairman of the board of directors of the Angolan state-owned diamond company, José Ganga Júnior, stating that these are "quite conservative" projections.
Endiama initially expected to produce 13.8 million carats of diamonds this year and generate profits of around 1.9 billion dollars, but due to the "current context and market prices", the company "corrected" the initial projections.
"The information we have today, with regard to the field of diamonds, points to a certain contraction in terms of prices, so we prefer to be a little conservative, but if we manage to obtain substantially higher prices, we will all applaud", explained José Junior denim.
The data were released this Monday, at a press conference to balance the activities carried out in 2021 and the projections for 2022 as part of the company's 41st anniversary celebrations, marked on January 15th.
According to the president of Endiama, the human capital of the diamond subsector has a workforce of 19,461 workers, distributed across various professions, with 15,096 direct and 4,365 indirect, with Endiama absorbing 454 employees.
"This number tends to grow, taking into account the strategy of dynamization and implementation of new projects both in prospecting and in production", said the official.
At least 39 diamond projects are being prospected in the provinces of Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Moxico, Malanje, Cuanza Sul, Huambo and Bié and 13 mines are already in production, 10 of which in secondary deposits and the rest in primary deposits.
Ganga Júnior also spoke about the semi-industrial exploration activity which currently has 264 licensed cooperatives and 62 are in operation, namely 29 in prospecting, 33 in production and 202 at a standstill.
In 2021, the semi-industrial diamond exploration activity allowed the recovery and sale of 50,750 carats of diamonds and generated revenues of 7.10 million dollars.
The conclusion of the process of transferring the concessionary function to the National Agency of Mineral Resources and the transfer of the offices of Endiama Mining and Fundação Brilhante to the province of Lunda Norte were identified as gains for the institution.
The signing of the mining investment contract with the mining multinational Rio Tinto, for the exploration of the Chiri Project, and the acquisition of the company GEOANGOL, a geology and drilling company, to strengthen Endiama's geological research capacity are also other gains in the sector.
For his part, the administrator of Endiama for the area of Human Resources and Legal Affairs, Osvaldo Jorge Van-Dúnem, spoke about the divestments of the non-nuclear businesses of the Angolan state diamond company.
In this area, he explained, the preparation of procedures for carrying out the public tender for the sale of Hotel Diamante, in Luanda, is underway, and the preparation of the accounting elements for the privatization of Alta 5, a security company owned by Endiama.
Osvaldo Jorge Van-Dúnem also reported on the hiring of a specialized company to determine the value of the shares to be sold on the stock exchange corresponding to 40 percent of Endiama's share in its share capital.
