De Beers upbeat on Botswana diamond pact after meeting new president
De Beers' CEO said he expected negotiations on a new diamond sales pact with Botswana's government to be wrapped up within weeks.
Angola will seek a foreign listing for state-owned diamond miner Endiama after an initial public offering at home, its mines minister said, even as the company’s operations are affected by links with sanctions-hit Russian miner Alrosa.
The OPEC member country has embarked on a major drive to reform and privatize the economy under President Joao Lourenco that involves a partial listing of oil behemoth Sonangol and diamond producer Endiama.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February triggered sanctions on a host of companies including Alrosa, which in turn hurt Endiama’s operations.
Alrosa is the world’s biggest diamond mining company and has a joint venture with Endiama in Angola.
“Sanctions are there and there is some impact,” Diamantino Azevedo, Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Cape Town.
He did not quantify the impact on Endiama from the sanctions on Alrosa and said the government was taking all measures needed to avoid any negative effect on diamond production.
Endiama’s proposed privatization is still on the cards and the government would opt for an initial public offering after its restructuring, Azevedo said.
“Our goal is (to list) till 30% but will start maybe with five or 10%,” he said, adding the company would be listed on the Angolan stock exchange and then seek a secondary foreign listing.
According to a document circulated by Endiama at the mining conference, its production for 2022 was almost flat at 8.75 million carats. That is against a revised guidance of 10.05 million carats it predicted last year.
The diamond miner expects to produce 12 million carats in 2023 and 14.5 million carats in 2024, according to the document, which estimated revenues at $2.5 billion in 2024.
But the government has not yet accepted the estimates, Azevedo said.
Endiama plans to more than double its diamond production between 2022 and 2027 to 17.5 million carats, the document said.
(By Promit Mukherjee and Wendell Roelf; Editing by Mark Potter)
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