The British government last week announced a new series of sanctions targeting 59 more Russian people and companies and six Belarusians in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including Russian diamond giant Alrosa, a shareholder in the Catoca mine, responsible for the extraction of more than 75 percent of Angola's diamonds.
"The sanctions lifted against Alrosa do not affect Sociedade Mineira de Catoca", a source from the Angolan company, which operates in Angola and sells its product on the international market, told Lusa.
The same source therefore ruled out the possibility of dismissals as a result of this situation.
He also denied that the sanctions imposed on Russian banks, namely on VTB Africa, a bank that operates in Angola, affect diamond transactions.
"Sociedade Mineira de Catoca works mostly with national banks, so this situation does not represent a risk in the company's commercial transactions", he underlined.
Sociedade Mineira de Catoca is made up of Endiama (Angola), with 41 percent, Alrosa (Russia), with 41 percent and Lev Leviev International – LLI (China), with 18 percent.
Catoca is the fourth largest open pit mine in the world and the largest company in the diamond sector in Angola, operating since 1996.
It is located in the territory of the municipality of Saurimo, province of Lunda-Sul and has an area of 639 thousand square meters.
Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine on February 24 that killed at least 1,179 civilians, including 104 children, and injured 1,860, including 134 children, according to the latest UN data, which warns of the likelihood of the real number. of civilian casualties be much higher.
The war caused the flight of more than 10 million people, including more than 3.9 million refugees in neighboring countries and almost 6.5 million internally displaced people.
The UN estimates that around 13 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
The Russian invasion was condemned by the international community in general, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and reinforcing economic and political sanctions on Moscow.
