Endiama Seeks Foreign Investment to Expand Exploration
July 26, 07 by IDEX Online Staff Reporter
State-run diamond mining company Endiama is seeking to attract foreign companies to Angola to tap untouched areas where, it believes, many pockets of diamonds have yet to be discovered.
Endiama spokesman Sebastiao Panzo told Reuters in an interview that Angola wishes to partner with foreign companies “interested in bottom-up diamond exploration and processing.”
By law, all diamond exploration activities in Angola are joint ventures with Endiama.
Angola is Africa’s third-largest diamond producer by value and the world’s fifth-largest, although they are currently exploring only about 40 percent of the territory believed to have potential for diamond mining.
“Surveys from the colonial era show we have diamonds in other areas we need to prospect. Who dares to prospect with us – those are the partners we need,” Panzo said. “We want international partners to go to the bottom of the pipeline of the industry with us.”
Angola's diamond production is expected to rise by about 8 percent to 10 million carats in 2007, Endiama said earlier in the year. It wants to boost output to 17-19 million carats by 2010.
