The National Diamond Company of Angola (Endiama) is quantifying the assets, heritage and reserves of all companies and concessions linked to the group, with part of the process for the dispersion of its capital on the stock exchange, starting in 2027.
The information was provided by the chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, Ganga Júnior, in an interview given to the publication “The Energy Year”, in which he presented an overview of the company’s changes in strategy with a view to achieving greater growth and creating more- value for the national economy.
Ganga Júnior highlighted, among the major achievements in the 2023 financial year, the start of production at the Luele mining concession, in Lunda-Sul, with reserves estimated at 600 million carats, highlighting that the company is no longer limited to managing shares inherent to holdings, to also dedicate themselves to their own mining operations.
“We have the Catoca and Luele mining concessions fully operational, with the latter recently entering the production phase.
Luele was projected to be the largest mine in Angola and one of the most important on a global scale. One of our priorities is the quantification of reserves in all our companies and concessions, with a view to the goal of dispersing the company’s capital on the stock exchange in 2027, which also involves a reorganization and rigorous financial restructuring”, he said.
Although the process of evaluating the potential of the Luele mine has not yet been completed, the prospect is for annual production in the order of 20 million carats, taking into account that the first phase of prospecting was limited to 600 meters deep, according to Manuel Ganga Júnior.
The president of Endiama reported that statistics allow us to predict profits of around 2.5 billion dollars per year, over a period of 40 years, when investments in the initial phase of operations stood at 500 million dollars.
In the 2024 financial year, the manager stressed, production is expected to not exceed 15 million carats, that is, five million less than the average to be achieved in subsequent years, with revenues set at 2.5 billion .
More kimberlites
Endiama’s investment portfolio includes implementing alluvial projects and reinforcing the monitoring of 33 prospecting projects.
The company is also focused on accelerating kimberlite sources, in partnership with the multinational Rio Tinto.
“We have in mind the exploration of the Mulepe kimberlite, a project that leads us to look for economic and financial information in order to carry out the feasibility study, as it is another asset that could result in a gradual increase in production levels ”, he stated.
Ganga Júnior reiterated its openness to highly prestigious international partners, on whom Angola can count on sharing knowledge, information and reciprocal benefits, at a time when top global companies such as De Beers, Rio Tinto and Alrosa are located in the country, despite the challenges inherent to the conflict in Ukraine and the proliferation of synthetic diamonds on the market.
The diamond subsector employs 20 thousand workers in the country, distributed across 33 projects.
