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DIAMONDS Angola
Angola’s diamond industry still has enormous, untapped resources that are attracting renewed interest from foreign investors.
There are currently 10 mines in operation in Angola – three to explore primary deposits (kimberlites) – Catoca, in Lunda Sul province, Camutué and Luô, in Lunda Norte– and seven for secondary deposits (alluvial deposits) –Cuango, Chitotolo, Canvuri, Luminas, Chimbongo, Somiluana and Calonda, in Lunda Norte. Angola plans to increase production at an annual average rate of 5 percent and in order to do so, it hopes to attract more foreign investors. Sumbula of Endiama is keen to emphasize that, “the industry offers business opportunities for prospecting, mining, trading, cutting and polishing and jewelry. It also provides investors with economic, social and political stability, a good customs regime, attractive mining legislation, excellent diamond quality and important investments in infrastructures. These will contribute to cut costs and increase revenues.” Before a diamond reaches the pocket of a nervous young man about to
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propose to his fianc e, it goes through a lengthy and complicated process, which explains in part why it is so pricey. To begin with, diamond fields are extremely rare. There are only about 20 major diamond mines in the world, and 11 of them provide about 62 percent of the world’s production of diamonds by carat, according to Bain Company. The majority are in Africa, but there are also mines in Russia, Australia, and Canada. A great deal of drilling must be done in order to obtain just few of the gems: production varies by mine, but the world’s richest mine, Jwaneng in Botswana, has to move on average a ton of rock to get 1.4 carat of rough diamond. All this has a cost on the environment, and that’s another aspect that Angolan authorities are keen to control. Under the slogan “Mining is necessary, preserving is possible,” Catoca carries out a number of programs aimed at controlling the environmental impact of
mining (air, water and soil), the recovery of degraded areas - notably by planting trees - and the management of solid and liquid waste. Furthermore, Catoca is in the process of obtaining the ISO 00 quality certification for its nvironmental Management System. Once extracted, rough diamonds are sorted, then cut and polished. In the process, they lose about half of their original weight. Traditionally, most of the stones were cut and polished in only a few centers in the world, Antwerp (the Netherlands), Tel Aviv (Israel), New York, and Russia. Nowadays, the smaller stones are increasingly cut in India and China, where labor costs are cheaper. Once cut, the diamonds reach the manufacturers, of which it is estimated that there are some 10,000 worldwide. Most are anonymous, but some have become global brands that have contributed to the legend of diamonds: Blue Nile, Cartier, Tiffany, Bulgari andHarry Winston, to name a few.
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