Investment in Africa Russian miner Alrosa has signed a deal to purchase a stake in Angola’s diamond miner Catoca. The contract is worth some $70 million.
Catoca has two processing plants with a total performance exceeding 10 million tonnes of ore per year. The African company mines and sells rough diamonds worth some 6.8 million carats per year. Its estimated reserves are 60 million carats.
"The Decree of the President of the Republic of Angola will come into force early in January 2018. The transaction will be legally formalized in February-March this year," Alrosa said in a statement.
Russia-based Alrosa says it accounts for almost a third of the world’s rough diamond production. In 2016, the group produced 37.4 million carats of rough diamonds. Alrosa says it aims to produce more than 41 million carats by 2019.