The Ministry of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas provided to reporters in Luanda the full speech delivered this Monday by Minister Diamantino Azevedo, at the opening session of the meeting “Dubai Diamond Conference 2022.”

After a production of 8.7 million carats in 2021, Angola expects to reach 10.1 million carats of rough diamonds this year, confirmed the minister, who explained the main transformations of the subsector in the legal field, workforce training and technological modernization.

Provided with abundant and diverse mineral deposits, this African nation has important reserves of precious stones in primary deposits (kimberlites) and alluvial deposits. It is the third largest producer in the continent by volume in the extraction of diamonds, he said.

During the last two years, Azevedo stated, around 90 percent of the country’s diamond exports were destined to the Emirate market, in a context of growing joint businesses, which include investments in energy, defense, transportation, agriculture, banking and telecommunications, among other branches.

Among the main projects underway, he also highlighted the preparations for the opening of the Angolan diamond exchange in 2022.

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