José Manuel Augusto Ganga Júnior, Endiama president

Angola produced 5.3 million carats of diamonds between January and August this year, and is on target to produce 8.3 million carats by the end of the year.

The revised figure, announced by the president of the national diamond company Endiama, is around 20% lower than initial estimates, with production having been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions put in place to fight the virus.

Endiama’s original production target was 10.5 million carats with expected turnover of 1.4 billion US dollars.

Endiama President José Manuel Augusto Ganga Júnior, said that due to readjustments revenue forecasts have been revised to $1.1 billion by year end.

He said that depending on the current context, the sector has some stocks of diamonds, whose quantities have not been revealed.

“So far we have stocks of diamonds as a result of weak demand, but recently we have already started to sense an increase in demand”, Ganga Júnior said.

Angola currently has 65 concessions for investment in the mining sector and expects to create over four thousand new jobs in the industry by 2022. The sector is attracting international interest, with giants such as Rio Tinto and De Beers in discussions over investing.

“Since the election of João Lourenço in 2017, Angola has become a much more attractive prospect for investors,” said Sunborn Consulting’s Simon English. “The country has always been a viable option in terms of the resources and with political barriers slowly being removed it is no surprise to see industry leaders considering investments.”

English confirmed that while Sunborn Consulting had no current investments in the country they are monitoring the situation closely for developments.

President Lourenço has made concerted efforts to stamp out the corruption that has engulfed Angolan politics for decades, presenting a business-friendly narrative to the world. One of the core goals of his administration is to grow the country’s diamond industry.

Angola is already one of the major diamond producers, sixth largest globally and third largest on the African continent. Diamond production is one of the major sources of Angola’s GDP.

By admin