Diamantino Azevedo was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Buco Zau gold project, a gold project promoted by the Angolan company Mineração Buco Zau, located in Cabinda province, northern Angola, with an installed washing capacity of 150 tonnes/hour.
"The ministry is also committed, in addition to promoting more gold projects, to create a gold refinery, so that we can start refining gold here in our country and we are counting on the production of this venture, which we think in a while will be greater than what they presented here today", said the minister.
According to Diamantino Azevedo, gold is an extremely important mineral, demonstrating the conviction that the promoters of this project will evolve into others, transmitting the experiences already acquired.
"The ministry and the National Agency for Mineral Resources are open for you to ask for more areas in this or other provinces of the country, to develop more mining projects, because for us it is a source of pride to see more projects emerging, projects that take care of the environment, the social aspects and, above all, projects made by Angolans, by Angolan companies", he stressed.
Within the scope of the social area, the company has carried out social projects, with the involvement of the community, having collected 6000 native plants that are being reproduced in nurseries and replanted around a thousand species in places where mining has already ended.
The minister congratulated the promoter for his courage and effort in bringing about a project, which took into account not only systemic geological aspects, but also environmental aspects, the preservation of native species, "fundamental so that at the end of the project's useful life can recover and rehabilitate the area as much as possible according to what it was before".
Diamantino de Azevedo said that the ministry wants to institute an award for mining companies that have the best social and environmental performance.
"And we hope that you are the first to win this award that we want to institute," he said.
Also in the oil province of Cabinda, the ministerial delegation visited the integrated project for the exploration of phosphate rock and the manufacture of granulated phosphate fertilizers, which is used as raw material in the manufacture of fertilizers with NKP macronutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, promoted by the company Minbos Resources.
According to a note from the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, the project is in the mining development phase and has already started assembling equipment for the fertilizer factory in Subantando, located 13 kilometers from the city of Cabinda.
According to the general director of the project, Aserah Masoori, mining activity should start at the end of this year.
The official stressed that they are still waiting for some licenses, namely the most important environmental one, for the start of production, with a capacity of between 30 and 33 tons per hour expected.
"We already have everything underway and the inspection is already taking place and as soon as we receive it we start cleaning and start construction", said Aserah Masoori, stressing that all the components of the factory are already in Cabinda.
