The Angolan government is making preparations for setting up the country’s new National Minerals Resources Agency, the country’s State Secretary for Geology and Mines, Jânio Corrêa Victor, stated recently. The new agency will take over the role of minerals and mining rights concessionary from State-owned mining companies.
This is part of the Angolan government’s policy to increase transparency and openness in the country’s mining sector. Government also believes that the creation of the new agency will bring only advantages for the country.
Currently, the granting of exploration and mining concessions is split between Endiama and Ferrangol, both State-owned. Endiama is the national diamond company, its name being an acronym for Empresa Nacional de Prospecção , Exploração, Lapidação e Comercialização de Diamantes de Angola (the National Company for the Prospecting, Mining, Polishing and Commercialisation of Diamonds of Angola). Ferrangol – also an acronym, for Empresa Nacional de Ferro de Angola, although this name translates as Angola National Iron Company – serves as the national representative partner company for most metals and minerals other than diamonds. The creation of the new agency will allow both companies to focus on their core business in future.
“With this agency, we want to withdraw the role of concessionary from our [State-owned] companies and give it to the agency and, with this, we are going to make our public companies in the sector concentrate more on their [core business], which has to do with the whole value chain, which starts with prospecting, production up to the commercialisation of the mineral products,” Victor said. He was speaking on Angolan Public Radio.
The setting up of the National Minerals Resources Agency follows the creation, in February, of the National Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Agency, which took over the role of hydrocarbons concessionary from State-owned oil company Sonangol. This was a part of government’s restructuring of the Angolan petroleum and gas sector. (Sonangol is also an acronym – for Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola, or National Fuels Company of Angola.)
Regarding diamonds, he referred to government’s new commercialisation policy regarding these precious stones, explaining that it was intended to ensure that this subsector of the mining industry “remain more open and more transparent”. He added: “We have been registering a substantial increase in production, as well as in revenues accrued from sales.”
According to State-owned diamond sales company Sodiam, during the first quarter of this year, Angola earned revenues of $368.66-million from the sale of 2.6 t of diamonds. This represented an increase of about 31.5% over the same period last year. (Sodiam is yet another acronym, for Empresa Nacional de Comercialização de Diamantes de Angola, or National Diamond sales Company of Angola.)