Luanda, Sept. 12, 2024 (Lusa) - Angola estimates its diamond reserves at 732 million carats, which could earn the state $140 billion (€125.7 billion), at an average price of $200 (€179.5) per carat, state-owned Empresa Nacional de Diamantes (Endiama) said on Thursday.
Miguel Vemba, the company's director of mining operations and stake management, in comments to the media, highlighted the country's potential, stressing that currently more than 90% of reserves are in primary deposits.
Vemba, who was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 10th UNESCO African Engineering Week & African Engineering Conference, which runs until Friday in Luanda, said that it was necessary to find efficient mechanisms to recover the value of these reserves, citing the use of artificial intelligence.
"Only through this new technology will we be able to considerably increase our reserves, reducing the time it takes to carry out studies," he said, emphasising that new technologies, with equipment able to operate at higher capacity, can also facilitate operational improvements.
Vemba also announced that Endiama could move towards producing off its own bat as soon as next year, no longer simply relying on companies in which it holds stakes.
He said that there are already two projects in the prospecting phase: Luachimba, which is at a very advanced stage and should go into pilot production in 2025, and Xamacanda, "with a lot of potential" but still in the study and information-gathering phase.
"Luachimba is already well advanced and, in 2025, we'll see a return to our own production, an Endiama project in fact; this is just the first sign we're giving," he said. "Xamacanda is the second project. The intention is to continue developing these projects and not simply depend on our holdings."
Angola is the world's fourth largest producer of rough diamonds, with annual output of 9.8 million carats of diamonds in 2023, from the provinces of Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Bié, Kwanza Sul and Malanje.
In the first half of this year, the country produced 5.6 million carats of diamonds, an increase of 36% on the same period in 2023, when it recorded total production of 4.1 million carats.
NME/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
