Angola Exploration Yet To Show Viable Results

Despite having spent more than $250 million in exploration in Angola without finding any economically viable diamond deposits, De Beers says it is more than confident of recouping its investment in the country.

“As we’ve said before, Angola is a focus for our exploration teams as we believe it remains highly prospective and under explored,” said spokeswoman Lynette Gould.

“With the new mineral legislation and improved investment conditions, we believe Angola offers real potential. Having said that, we’ve done a lot of work there in the past seven years but we haven’t yet found anything that’s economically viable,” she added.

Gould was responding to comments made by Pedro Lago de Carvalho, De Beers' business manager for Angola, who said that the company was optimistic about its prospects in the country due to promising exploration results from a 3,000 square kilometer concession near Lucapa in Lunda North province.

De Beers' experience in Angola has been rocky. It pulled out of the country in 2001 after having lost the right to market more than $800 million in rough diamonds. Four years of arbitration with Angola’s state-owned diamond company Endiama resulted in it being able to return in 2005. The Lucapa concession is the last of five that it has explored in the country.

Angola ranks third after Russia and Canada in unexplored diamond potential, making it unlikely that De Beers will reduce its annual $30 million exploration outlay in the country.