Russian miner ALROSA has sold two pilot batches of rough diamonds from its operations at the Catoca during the first two monnths of the year, according to a report from Russian news agency TASS. The report quoted the company’s Vice President Rinat Gizatulin as saying that this has come as ALROSA’s Angolan partners allowed the company to participate in sales. 

Gizatulin also said that the deals were worth $10-15 mn, and was importnat from the viewpoint of the relationship with Angolan partners, it was reported. The agency also said that ALROSA now plans to sell 35% of diamonds from Catoca and at least 50% from its major Luaxe deposit in Angola. He, however, clarified that the latter would only be finalised after seeking approval of the Company’s Angolan partnrers.

The report quotes the official as saying that the Luaxe deposit, which is estimated to have about 400 mln carats of diamonds, is more promising than the existing deposit at the Catoca project. He said that ALROSA and its partners have almost finalised an agreement under which agreed that Catoca will hold the mining licence of the Luaxe deposit.

The Catoca Ltd Mining Co, in which ALROSA holds a 32.8% stake, has two processing plants with a total capacity in excess of 10 million tonnes of ore, and produces and sells around 6.8 mln carats each year. Other stake holders include the state-owned diamond mining enterprise of the Republic of Angola Endiama E.P. (32.8%), LL International Holding B.V. which belongs to China-Sonagol (18.0%), and Brazil’s Odebrecht Mining Services (16.4%).