The President of Angola HE João Lourenço, in the course of an official visit to Russia, attended a Russian-Angolan business forum and visited the United Selling Organisation of ALROSA on April 3, 2019.

The Russian-Angolan business forum, which was attended by representatives of the business communities of both countries, was organised with the support of the Russia-Angola Business Council, which is chaired by ALROSA CEO Sergey Ivanov.

“The goal of the event is the development of economic relations between the Republic of Angola and the Russian Federation,” ALROSA stated.

Cooperation in the diamond mining sector is a significant part of economic relations between Russia and Angola. “Russian ALROSA has been working in Angola since 1993,” ALROSA explained. “Currently, together with Angolan partners, ALROSA is implementing a number of projects in the country in the field of exploration and diamond mining in accordance with the best practices of responsible business.”

Amongst these is the partnership between ALROSA and Angola’s state-owned company ENDIAMA, through which ALROSA is developing the Catoca diamond field in Angola. In 2013, with the participation of ALROSA’s specialists in Angola, the new and promising Luaxe field was found. “This deposit may become one of the largest in the last 60 years of global diamond exploration,” ALROSA said.

“Given the resource potential of Angola, the technological and financial possibilities that we have, we can confidently say that we have all the necessary prerequisites for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the diamond industry and strengthening the positions of our countries in the global diamond market,” noted Sergey Ivanov during his speech at the forum.

The Angolan President also visited the Unified Selling Organisation (USO) of ALROSA, where sorting of rough diamonds, their pre-sale preparation and subsequent sale takes place. He was shown the various stages of diamond sorting, as well as the largest and most interesting pieces of the diamond collection.

During the Angolan President’s visit, ALROSA once again expressed its willingness to share its expertise and experience in diamond sorting with Angola.