Angola’s state-owned diamond company, Endiama granted semi-industrial diamond exploration licences to 260 cooperatives in 2019. Company president José Manuel Ganga Júnior, however, said they are now working to promote the development of cooperatives on an industrial scale.
He said the cooperatives are expected to evolve into the equivalent of small businesses within two years.
Endiama recently said Angola is expected to bring to an end the semi-industrial exploration of diamonds in the country as it wants to only keep industrial operations, regardless of whether they are run by large or small cooperatives.
Angola had more than 700 small diamond prospectors prior to operation transparency, which was carried out in 2018 by the ministry of the interior.
Only 260 of them were said to have met the requirements to continue prospecting.
“However, not all cooperatives that received an operating licence have already started to produce,” said Ganga Júnior.
“Those who [used to] dig in their yard looking for diamonds, are a thing of the past.”
The newly licenced co-operatives produced 35,856 carats in 2019 and these were all sold to Empresa Nacional de Comercialização de Diamantes de Angola (Sodiam) to prevent the “trafficking of diamonds”, he said.
Angola produced 9.4 million carats in 2018.
It is expected to lift its diamond output to 13.8 million carats in 2022.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough & Polished
