About 60.7 million kwanzas were collected during the second quarter of this year in Bié province, resulting from the granting of licenses for the sale of aggregates, taxes on diamond production, diamond exploration and issuance of permits.
The data were provided by the director of the provincial office for the Integrated Economic Development of Bié, Israel Elavoco. Of this amount, taxes on diamond production represented the highest bar with 9 million kwanzas According to the official, diamond exploration in the province during the first quarter of the current year stood at 5,652 carats. In the same period, 7,473 cubic meters of granite, 2,194 of limestone and 2,370 meters of sand were explored. He said that the operation of aggregates in the region is ensured by 4 companies and 14 cooperatives, after having dismantled 13 cooperatives that worked illegally. He assured that the process of exploitation of aggregates in that region generated more than a thousand direct jobs.
A study recently carried out by the provincial office for the integrated economic development of the province points out that there is a potential for more than 17 mineral resources in that region, few of which are in exploration. The emphasis is on iron, galena, diamond, ruby, garnet, ilmenite, quartz, tantalite, stivine, kimberlites, construction materials of mining origin (granite, clay, limestone, kaolin) and mineral-medicinal water and table water. Among the minerals in large-scale exploration are diamond, in the municipalities of Nharea, Chitembo, Andulo, Camacupa and Cuemba, and iron in Andulo, in the town of Chivaulo.
