Angola’s rough diamond production reached 10.7 million carats in the nine months to September, a government official said on Friday, as the country aims for another record haul this year.
The southwest African nation produced a record 14 million carats of rough diamonds in 2024, making it the world’s third-largest producer by output, behind Russia and Botswana. This year, Angola targets 14.8 million carats.
Secretary of State for Mineral Resources Janio Correa Victor noted that output was 23.2% higher at the half-year mark, though he did not provide comparative figures for the first nine months of 2024, Reuters reported.
The higher production was driven by operational stability at the Catoca Mining Company and the Luele Mining Company, Victor told a diamond industry event.
Both companies are jointly owned by Angola’s state-owned diamond company Endiama and Taadeen Investment LLC, a subsidiary of Oman’s sovereign wealth fund.
The Omani firm replaced Russian miner Alrosa as Angola’s partner in state-owned diamond projects in 2024, after Alrosa was affected by sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine two years earlier.
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Victor said that despite doubling export volumes, the value of Angola’s rough diamond exports fell 14% during the nine months due to a collapse in diamond prices.
He attributed the drop to competition from synthetic diamonds, global economic uncertainties, trade tariffs imposed by the United States, and stagnation in the Chinese market since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Angola, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest oil producer after Nigeria, has steadily expanded its diamond output since the end of its civil war in 2002. Prior to that, the country was considered one of the three main sources of conflict diamonds, alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.
Angola has also placed a bid for a majority stake in De Beers, which is up for sale by restructuring parent company Anglo American (AAL.L), potentially setting up a standoff with Botswana, which is also seeking control of the global diamond giant.
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Image Credit: Club of Mozambique
