Angola’s revenue from diamonds grew by 11.7% (US$30.7 million) year-on-year to reach US$294.85 million for  the third quarter of 2019 (Q3 2019),  media reports based on figures released on Monday in Luanda, stated.

“Angolan national diamond trading company, Sodiam reported that this revenue was the result of the sale of 2.94 million carats of diamonds, an increase of 46% or 722,800 carats compared to the third quarter of 2018,” Macauhub reported.

The report said that Angola presently produces around 9 million carats of diamonds. The state-owned diamond producer Endiama has set itself the goal of  producing  14 million carats of diamonds by 2022. This, it hopes to do with the production from the Luaxe mine where exploration has commenced.

Sodiam, which is the exclusive channel for “contract and auction sales” of Angola’s rough diamonds,  is reported by Macauhum to have “sold more than 8.4 million carats of diamonds from 12 mines for a total of US$1.2 billion, or an average price of US$145.5 per carat”.  

In a separate piece, the publication reported the setting up of a diamond cutting facility by KGK Angola, a Company which is part of  India’s well known KGK Group.

Angolan media reported that this made it the fourth such unit to be set up; with this specific one having a capacity  to process 100,000  carats of diamonds per year.

“The company is the result of a partnership between Hong Kong-based Indian-funded group KGK with a 65% stake, the Angolan national diamond trading company Sodiam, with 5% and UST, with the remaining 30%, with partners having invested US$5 million to date of the US$25 million investment expected in the first phase,” Macauhub reported.

The cutting unit not only  has the most modern facilities, but it has also created   jobs for 50 Angolans; with the possibility of taking the number of Angolan employees  to 200 by the first half of 2020, Macauhub said.