MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s largest diamond miner Alrosa plans to spend $10-20 million annually on diamond prospecting in Angola as part of a new joint venture to look for deposits in the Central African country, Alrosa said Tuesday.
The firm said it planned to sign a JV agreement soon with Angola’s national diamond company, Endiama. It did not specify a date.
Alrosa is interested in expanding its resource base, which last year was close to 1 billion carats under JORC classification. Last year’s prospecting results in Angola showed strong potential for discovering large diamond deposits there, a company spokesman said.
In April, Alrosa held preliminary talks with Endiama on establishing a joint venture on a parity basis to prospect for diamonds outside the Catoca diamond field, in which Alrosa already holds a 32.8 percent stake.
