Angola will give the results of its first diamond auction on Jan. 31 as the southwest African country\u2019s seeks to increase transparency, attract more investment and boost government revenue, state-owned diamond-trading company Sodiam said.<\/p>\n
The evaluation of seven gemstones from Angola\u2019s northeast Lulo mine that will be sold is expected to end between Jan. 25 and Jan. 28, Eugenio Bravo da Rosa, head of the Luanda-based company, said. Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the KGK Group, Rosy Blue and the Diarough Group are among diamond manufacturing and distribution companies invited to the auction, he said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re confident that this auction will result in a level of revenue that is higher than normal,\u201d Bravo da Rosa said in an emailed response to questions late Sunday. The auction is in line with Angola\u2019s goal to become \u201cincreasingly more open to foreign investment by following the best global practices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Angolan President Joao Lourenco has been trying to open up and diversify the economy of Africa\u2019s second-biggest oil producer to shake off a slowdown that began with a drop in crude prices in mid-2014. His predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos\u2019 tight grip on the economy prompted some foreign miners to avoid Angola, which is also the source of the fifth-most diamonds in the world.<\/p>\n Bravo da Rosa said Sodiam now plans to hold at least six diamond auctions a year to entice more investment in the industry. The dates of the auctions are still being decided, he said.<\/p>\n Among the gemstones that will be sold this month is a 114-carat stone and a pink, 46-carat gem. Both diamonds were found in the alluvial Lulo mine, where in 2016 one of the world\u2019s biggest diamonds — a 404.2-carat stone — was found. The lion\u2019s share of Angola\u2019s diamond production comes from alluvial deposits, or rivers, but Angola has been working to increase exploration of gems in shafts of volcanic rock, known as kimberlites.<\/p>\n Much of Angola\u2019s diamond deposits remain under-explored because of a 27-year civil war and a business environment that remained difficult to enter after fighting ended in 2002. Angola\u2019s diamond output fell 11 percent to 8.4 million carats in 2018 from a year earlier. Still, higher gem prices led to an 11 percent increase in revenue to $1.22 billion, said Bravo da Rosa, who cited preliminary data.<\/p>\n \u201cThe average price in 2018 increased by about 24 percent compared to the previous year,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is currently a price reduction environment, especially for smaller diamonds.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lucapa Diamond Co. operates the Lulo mine in Angola\u2019s Lunda Norte region through holding company Sociedade Mineira do Lulo, or SML. Lucapa has a 40 percent stake in SML. The remaining shareholders are state-owned Angolan diamond mining company Empresa Nacional de Diamantes EP, or Endiama, and local partner Rosas & Petalas, according to information on Lucapa\u2019s website.<\/p>\n The post Angola to hold first diamond auction to bolster investment<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The evaluation of seven gemstones from Angola’s northeast Lulo mine that will be sold is expected to end between Jan. 25 and Jan. 28. <\/p>\n The post Angola to hold first diamond auction to bolster investment<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[797,506,404,369],"tags":[9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1094437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094444,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094437\/revisions\/1094444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1094437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1094437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1094437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Much of Angola\u2019s diamond deposits remain under-explored because of a 27-year civil war and a business environment that remained difficult to enter after fighting ended in 2002<\/q><\/p>\n
Pink Diamond<\/h3>\n