Data from the National Diamond Company of Angola (Endiama) were presented during the 10th meeting of the advisory council of the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, which is being held under the motto “Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas: Challenges and Solutions”.
According to the balance of actions and projects 2023/2024, in the year ending, Endiama was strategically focused on rationalizing production processes and significantly improving geological and mining research activities in all projects, mainly the Luachima and Xamacanda.
At this time, 54 projects are in the prospecting phase, of which nine are in an advanced phase and in the evaluation phase, with an investment this year of 42.3 million dollars in geological and mining research activities.
According to the balance, 25 projects are in effective prospecting activity.
The document indicates that the need to modernize the treatment plants of some projects resulted in a deficit of 1.2 million carats of diamonds and a deficit of 460 thousand carats due to a lack of equipment for removing earth, aggravated by mechanical failures, shortages of qualified labor and lack of spare parts, as well as a deficit of 304 thousand carats due to projects being restructured.
In the outlook for 2025, Endiama predicts a production of 15.13 million carats of diamonds, an average price of 150 dollars/carat and a gross revenue of 2.27 billion dollars.
In a press interview, on the sidelines of the consultative council, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo, said that the sector is going through a difficult time, due to falling prices.
“Right now, for diamonds it is a difficult time, we also have synthetic diamonds that are there, they now compete with mineral diamonds, we also have the issue of sanctions on Russian diamonds, but we have to continue to do our part, which is to continue searching for new resources, diamond reserves, optimizing costs and also improving legal and contractual aspects, so that we can overcome this crisis with production that is within our objective”, he highlighted.
Angola intends to increase its diamond cutting capacity locally, with the construction in three phases of 19 new factories by 2026, five of which this year, which have a physical progress of 54 percent, according to data available until November 30 past, which should be completed in March 2025.
The country aims to achieve the target of cutting rough diamonds in the country of 21,326 carats by 2027.
