ALROSA Acquires Stake In Angola's Luaxe Deposit, Values It At More Than $35Bn

(IDEX Online) – ALROSA President Sergey Ivanov and Antonio Carlos Sumbula, President of Angola's national diamond company, Endiama, signed a deal to give the Russian miner a stake in the Luaxe diamond deposit which Ivanov said has a value of more than $35 billion.

“The Luele pipe is the largest of all those discovered worldwide over the past 60 years since the discovery of deposits in Yakutia," Ivanov said. "As a specialized investor in the Luaxe project, ALROSA, which has relevant professional competence, will assume obligations for the new company’s project solutions and technical policy. The total commercial value of the deposit is assessed as over $35 billion."

The signing took place during a visit by a Russian delegation headed by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Yury Trutnev, to Angola.

Trutnev said that cooperation in diamond mining between the countries, in particular between ALROSA and Endiama, is the main feature of economic cooperation between Russia and Angola.

In 2013, a kimberlite pipe named Luele was found in the Luaxe concession area in the scope of exploration operations carried out by ALROSA in cooperation with Angolan experts. “Over the past few years, ALROSA, acting with the support of the Russian government, has been engaged in negotiations with Angolan top management and investors. Consent to sign a mining investment agreement for exploration and assessment of the deposit, as well as for signing a contract between founders of a company for the development of Luele deposit was obtained as a result of negotiations,” said Trutnev.

ALROSA will be involved in the project through the Catoca mine, Angola's largest diamond operation, in which the Russian miner has a 32.8-percent stake, which will obtain a 50.5 percent share in the new structure. ALROSA will also submit to its Supervisory Board a proposal to purchase directly another 8 percent in Luaxe, and to increase its share in Catoca Ltd. Mining Co.