De Beers has refuted reports that it is currently negotiating with Angola’s Endiama for a possible return to the southern African country. “De Beers Group does not have operations in Angola and is not currently involved in such negotiations,” group spokesperson David Johnson told Rough & Polished.
Angola’s national diamond company Endiama is negotiating the return to the country of De Beers and the entry of Rio Tinto, two of the largest mining groups in the world.
Endiama president José Manuel Ganga Júnior was quoted recently by the local media as saying that negotiations were underway for De Beers to return to Angola.
The group’s chief executive Bruce Cleaver was invited to meet with Angolan President Lourenço to discuss the country’s diamond sector in 2018.
De Beers told Rough & Polished then that they just had positive discussions about the future of the country’s diamond sector.
The group has a residual presence in Angola since 2014.
Its prospecting licences for the Mulepe-1 kimberlite cluster in Angola expired in 2012.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
