Angola has produced, as of September, just over seven million carats of diamonds, of the 9.1 million programmed, which have already sold over US$1 billion (€862.5 million), the chairman of Angola’s diamond industry said on Wednesday.
According to the chairman of the board of directors of Angolan diamond company Empresa Nacional de Diamantes de Angola (Endiama), José Ganga Júnior, all mining companies are working to meet the production target of 9.1 million carats of diamonds, noting that despite the pandemic, there had been an increase in diamond mining activities.
“We are working exactly to meet this target, despite the adversities we had had since last year when we had to reduce some mining operations, but we have managed to resist,” said Ganga Júnior, who was speaking at a press conference, organised by the Ministry for Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, to announce the holding of the 1st International Diamond Conference of Angola, which will be held in Saurimo, the capital of Lunda Sul province, between 25 and 27 of this month.
Ganga Júnior said that all diamond mining companies were working and gradually increasing their activities.
He noted the launch of two new mining projects and that the company was working “to improve those that currently operate with some weakness, namely the former Luó and Camútue,” which have since been restructured and are now “in a phase of growth.
“We think so that we will comply with our programme of activities,” he stressed.
The chairman of the board of directors of Sociedade de Comercialização de Diamantes de Angola (Sodiam), Eugénio Bravo da Rosa, told Lusa, without giving the amount already raised this year from diamond sales, that the figure of US$1 billion recorded in 2020 had already been surpassed.
