📋 Tender Overview
The information was released on Saturday by the Minister of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Diamantino Azevedo on the sidelines of the visit of the President of the Republic Joo Loureno to the referred enterprise. According to the minister the project started by providing training opportunities for young people in the province some of whom are already studying abroad. Without advancing the production capacity of the hub he informed that Angola has a long-term goal to fulfill when it comes to cutting diamonds. He said that the goal is to reach about 20 percent of the total diamond production recognizing however that it is a difficult goal to achieve. For the minister many producing countries that have been in the polishing industry for longer than Angola have not yet reached such levels.The Lunda Sul unit will have in a first phase five factories in addition to that there are 22 more lots available for the construction of other factories which will allow the 20 of the total production to be reached. He explained that the diamond pole will also have two training schools one being a factory school for appraisers and cutters and another technician-professional linked to the Angolan National Prospecting Exploration Lapidation and Marketing Company ENDIAMA .He revealed that in addition to specializing in geology exploration and transformation of minerals the pole will have other areas such as electricity mechanics and carpentry. Diamantino Azevedo said that the energy will be provided by a hybrid plant with thermal and solar energy. Located to the north of the city of Saurimo the Diamond Development Pole aims to bring together in a single space companies related to the mining economy focusing on the diamond value chain and offers the appropriate infrastructure for the development of this activity. The infrastructure whose work started in October 2019 is valued at 77 million dollars plus a complementary investment of two million and three hundred thousand dollars. At 65 percent of its execution the work has about 26 lots for polishing factories and the main polishing factory has already been completed. At an advanced stage there are four main industrial buildings where the Diamond Evaluation and Lapidary Training Center will be installed under the responsibility of the Diamond Marketing Society of Angola SODIAM in addition to other smaller faceting factories.The infrastructure whose characteristics are similar to those of the Special Economic Zone may create private investment opportunities for national and foreign entrepreneurs. Angola with four diamond-cutting factories exported in 2019 around US 1.3 billion in diamonds of a volume of nine million and 400 thousand carats produced.
