Diamantino Azevedo was speaking in Luanda on the sidelines of an event on critical minerals for the energy transition, as part of the days alluding to the Angolan Mining Worker's Day, which is celebrated on 27 April.
The official said that it is not worth insisting on talking only about energy transition, but also about energy security: “The Russia-Ukraine war helped us to look at these concepts. We started with the energy transition, but we hydrocarbon producing countries have always talked about a fair energy transition and today the fundamental concept is that of energy security”.
Diamantino Azevedo also stressed that the energy transition is also digital and mineral “because, in reality, it is the moment when certain minerals cease to have a leading role and other minerals start to have another leading role, but society, the world, will not go away. get rid of minerals if you want to maintain or improve the quality of life you currently have”
He defended, therefore, a balance between the need to exploit minerals and environmental and climate aspects.
For the minister, the end of the use of petroleum is still far away, since even if alternatives to its use as fuel are found, this raw material is also an essential component of the petrochemical industry.
“Oil is going to stay around for many, many years and even as a fuel it will not be in the coming decades that we are going to dispense with the use of hydrocarbons”, he stressed.
He also considered that, as or more important than having the minerals, it is to advance towards their transformation.
“If we have refining, petrochemical, stocking capacity, even if one day we have little production we will have the capacity to acquire these products and transform the country”, he stressed, giving Singapore as an example “which doesn’t even have oil and has one of the largest refining parks in the world. world".
The round table, moderated by the Secretary of State for Oil and Gas, José Barroso, was attended by several specialists linked to the sector, who addressed the future of critical minerals for the energy transition and their development in Angola.
Renewable sources such as solar energy and wind energy depend on several groups of minerals, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel (for batteries), rare earths (used to make magnets used in some types of wind turbines and electric cars) and graphite as well. fundamental for the manufacture of batteries, explained Tânia Hung from ANRM.
In Angola, 51 mineral elements or occurrences considered critical for the energy transition and for some economies have already been identified, but minister Diamantino Azevedo was cautious in distinguishing the production potential.
“Not all prospecting results in a mine, we have information about occurrences and anomalies and this is important information to attract investors, but let's not create false expectations”, he said.
He highlighted that the extension of up to seven years of mining titles serves precisely so that prospecting can be carried out, which may not result in reserves to develop a mining project.
“We have to be careful, we have to have a pedagogical attitude”, he added, explaining that there are “signs” of several critical minerals, but only diamonds and gold are already being exploited.
At the event, Jacinto Rocha, president of the National Agency for Mineral Resources, also pointed out what has been considered a “contradiction” taking into account the fact that clean energies depend on “dirty” minerals to develop, alluding to mining.
Jacinto Rocha noted that Angola must also define which minerals it considers critical to position itself in this industry and added that the country has already received requests to prospect for lithium, rare earths, copper and manganese, among others.
