Angolan national diamond company Endiama President Antonio Carlos Sumbula and Alrosa President Sergey Ivanov have signed an agreement that gives the Russian miner a 50.5% stake in Angola’s Luaxe rough diamond deposit. According to Gem Konnect, Luaxe is the largest diamond deposit in Angola, and Alrosa estimates it holds diamonds “worth $35 billion”.
The Luele kimberlite pipe in Luaxe, which Alrosa has been exploring since 2013, “is said to be the largest to have been discovered in 60 years”.
Ivanov commented: “The Luele pipe is the largest of all those discovered worldwide over the past 60 years, since the discovery of deposits in Yakutia […] The total commercial value of the deposit is assessed as over $35 billion”.