The Secretary of State for Mineral Resources said Friday 14th April in Luanda that the adoption of a governance model for the mining sector, based on institutions such as the Geological Institute, the National Agency for Mineral Resources and state companies (Endiama and Sodiame) with the structure to lead the activity, are some of the pillars needed to transform the country’s resource potential into real wealth, in favor of improving the living conditions of the population.
Jânio Correia Víctor, who was speaking at the Launching Press Conference of the “Technical and Scientific Journeys of the Mining Worker”, to be held from the 17th to the 27th of this month, also referred to the creation of the future Diamond Exchange, the Kimberley and adherence to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) among the driving forces for better management of the sector.
According to the official, the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas has been involved in the process of attracting investment, both national and foreign, insofar as the sector is one of intensive investment and rich people, which means that, In general, large projects need very strong financial support.
“First of all, we tried to create internal conditions so that there could be investment and that investment resulted, internally, in a series of small companies that have been sending their documentation to MIREMPET and then proceeding to the ANRN for the concession of mining titles, just as we also had large international companies that are currently operating in the country”.
The official underlined that the life cycle of mining projects is very long, so that if we start with prospecting, possibly, we will have a mine after 10 years, which means that during all this time, we are investing with the risks that are taken, since there are cases in which the money invested is not recovered.
There is evidence that Angola has a variety of resources, but, with the exception of diamonds and ornamental rocks, iron whose exploration is going to restart, we need to prove its existence because we want to transform it into real wealth, with the aim of making Angola in a true mining country, because we haven’t reached this goal yet”, he said.
A true mining country, stressed the Secretary of State, is one in which a good part of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes essentially from the mining industry.
“We are taking steps towards this, of course it will take time, but we are on that path. These are the main challenges of the sector, and we have the support of all other sectors”, he concluded.
“Yetwene” diamond project generates 500 jobs
The chairman of Endiama’s Board of Directors, José Manuel Nganga Júnior, announced shortly the start of the production phase of the Yetwene Project, an alluvial diamond mine with an extension of 508 square kilometers, located in Lukapa, Lunda-Norte, whose investment in the prospecting phase was 25 million dollars, having generated 500 jobs.
With a 20 percent stake in Endiama, the mine characterized as a secondary deposit (Aluvião) was granted to the operator Mountain Stability lda, structured, in a first phase, for a production of around 10,000 carats per month, with the prospect of evolving to 15,000 carats per month, in the second stage, a percentage that Endiama establishes as an average for all projects.
The project, according to José Manuel Nganga Júnior, was submitted to the geological-mining research phase for three years, which made it possible to assess the existence of economically exploitable reserves, and the feasibility studies for an investment carried out at this stage of prospecting are in the order of 25 million dollars. “For us, Endiama, and for the alluvial projects (diamonds), what we have been doing is providing each one of them with a capacity of no less than 15,000 carats per month. Therefore, this project will follow the same characteristic”, assured.
Currently, the project has guaranteed economically exploitable reserves for about five (5) years. Sales prices for this project are around US$300 per carat, which assumes an average of US$3 million per month.
