Benedito Manuel, general director of the company, justified the decision with the fact that there are ten years left for the mine to reach its useful life.
Cited by Angop, Manuel said that preliminary studies concluded that after a depth of 600 meters, the limit for open-pit mining, the mine still had diamond reserves, which is why Sociedade Mineira de Catoca intends to move forward with future underground mining.
Current exploration at the mine does not have the capacity to continue prospecting below 600 meters. Therefore, the society has decided to invest five million dollars and hire a company to go ahead with the drilling.
From there enough data will be gathered to conduct a feasibility study.
Located in the province of Lunda Sul, the mine began to be explored in February 1997. Catoca is considered the fourth largest mine in the world.
