Angolan news reports, quoted by Rough & Polished, say that Angola has allowed 16 diamond exploration cooperatives to resume explorations. All diamond explorations in the country were halted last September during the government “Operation Transparency”, which also saw the closing of 279 diamond trading stores “for not declaring their sales to the concerned state organs”.
The exploration licenses were issued by the state-owned diamond company, Endiama, for the provinces of Malanje, Bié, Lunda-Norte and Lunda-Sul. Each cooperative was granted 200 square kilometers for exploration; the licences are renewable every two years.
Earlier this month, Endiama said it expects to make about $1.5 billion from carats sold in 2019, compared with $1.25 billion realised from 8.47 million carats sold in 2018. Endiama, which produced 9.4 million carats last year, said in a presentation held at African Mining Indaba that it expects to produce 9.6 million carats in 2019. In 2018, the company was the world’s fifth largest diamond producer by value.
