Related Research Articles
The economy of Angola remains heavily influenced by the effects of four decades of conflict in the last part of the 20th century, the war for independence from Portugal (1961–75) and the subsequent civil war (1975–2002). Poverty since 2002 is reduced over 50% and a third of the population relies on subsistence agriculture. Since 2002, when the 27-year civil war ended, government policy prioritized the repair and improvement of infrastructure and strengthening of political and social institutions. During the first decade of the 21st century, Angola's economy was one of the fastest-growing in the world, with reported annual average GDP growth of 11.1 percent from 2001 to 2010. High international oil prices and rising oil production contributed to strong economic growth, although with high inequality, at that time. 2022 Trade surplus was &30B/2012 $48B
The De Beers Diamond Consortium is a South African-British corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and coastal mining. It operates in 35 countries and mining takes place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Canada and Australia.
Lunda Norte is a province of Angola. It has an area of 103,760 km² and a population of 862,566. Angola's first President, Agostinho Neto, made Lucapa the provincial capital after independence, but the capital was later moved to Dundo. The province borders the Democratic Republic of Congo in the northeast and Lunda Sul in the south. The province is rich in gold and diamonds, but remains vastly underdeveloped and impoverished. UNITA used the money generated from the sale of diamonds to fund war efforts. Cuango River valley, the richest diamond area of Angola is located in the province. Mining is done by notable companies like DeBeers and Endiama. The Lunda province whose capital was Saurimo was created by the Portuguese colonial empire on July 13, 1895. It was divided into Lunda-Sul and Lunda-Norte subdivisions through a constitution act in 1978 by the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government. Iron and manganese mining are also important economic activities. It is well known for its sculptures. The most notable one is The Thinker, a sculpture of a man holding his head. It is rich in terms of flora and fauna.
Lunda Sul is a province of Angola. It has an area of 77,637 km² and a 2014 census population of 537,587. Saurimo is the provincial capital.
Anglo American plc is a British multinational mining company with headquarters in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore, polyhalite and steelmaking coal. The company has operations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
Jagersfontein is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa.
The Fucauma Diamond Mine is a diamond mine under construction in the Lunda Norte Province of Angola. The mine is owned by a consortium of diamond mining companies, the two largest holders being Endiama with 40 percent ownership and Trans Hex with 35% ownership.
The Luarica diamond mine is a diamond mine located in Angola. The mine is owned by a consortium of diamond mining companies, the two largest holders being Endiama with 38 percent ownership and Trans Hex with 32 percent ownership.
Dundo, or Dundo-Chitato, is a former mining town, with a population of 177,604 (2014), now a city and the provincial capital of Lunda Norte in Angola. Established in the early part of the 20th century as a planned diamond mining community, Dundo has continued to grow, has its own airport and is now being superseded by a new city, New Dundo.
Endiama E.P. is the national diamond company of Angola and it is the exclusive concessionary of mining rights in the domain of diamonds. Angola's state-run diamond company Endiama produced 8.55 million carats of diamonds in 2010.
The Mineral Revolution is a term used by historians to refer to the rapid industrialisation and economic changes which occurred in South Africa from the 1860s onwards. The Mineral Revolution was largely driven by the need to create a permanent workforce to work in the mining industry, and saw South Africa transformed from a patchwork of agrarian states to a unified, industrial nation. In political terms, the Mineral Revolution had a significant impact on diplomacy and military affairs. Finally, the policies and events of the Mineral Revolution had an increasingly negative impact on race relations in South Africa, and formed the basis of the apartheid system, which dominated South African society for a century. The Mineral Revolution was caused by the discovery of diamonds in Kimberly in 1867 and also by the discovery of gold in Witwatersrand in 1886. The mineral mining revolution laid the foundations of racial segregation and the control of white South Africans over black South Africans. The Mineral Revolution changed South Africa from being an agricultural society to becoming the largest gold producing country in the world.
Jagersfontein Mine was an open-pit mine in South Africa, located close to the town of Jagersfontein and about 110 kilometres south-west of Bloemfontein. Since it was first established, two of the ten biggest diamonds ever discovered, the Excelsior and the Reitz, were mined from Jagersfontein. The term "Jagers" has since been coined to denote the distinctive faint bluish tint of the gems from this mine. Among geologists, Jagersfontein is known as a kimberlite pipe, and a prime locality for mantle xenoliths, some of which are believed to have come from depths of 300–500 km (190–310 mi).
In the 1990s in Angola, the last decade of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), the Angolan government transitioned from a nominally communist state to a nominally democratic one, a move made possible by political changes abroad and military victories at home. Namibia's declaration of independence, internationally recognized on April 1, eliminated the southwestern front of combat as South African forces withdrew to the east. The MPLA abolished the one-party system in June and rejected Marxist-Leninism at the MPLA's third Congress in December, formally changing the party's name from the MPLA-PT to the MPLA. The National Assembly passed law 12/91 in May 1991, coinciding with the withdrawal of the last Cuban troops, defining Angola as a "democratic state based on the rule of law" with a multi-party system.
Mining in Angola is an activity with great economic potential since the country has one of the largest and most diversified mining resources of Africa. Angola is the third largest producer of diamonds in Africa and has only explored 40% of the diamond-rich territory within the country, but has had difficulty in attracting foreign investment because of corruption, human rights violations, and diamond smuggling. Production rose by 30% in 2006 and Endiama, the national diamond company of Angola, expects production to increase by 8% in 2007 to 10,000,000 carats (2,000 kg) annually. The government is trying to attract foreign companies to the provinces of Bié, Malanje and Uíge. Angola has also historically been a major producer of iron ore.
Sociedade de Desenvolvimento Mineiro (SDM) is an Angolan public mining company and holds the mining rights in an area of concession of 2,950 km2, located in the hydrological basin of Cuango River, Lunda Norte Province.
In the 1920s in Angola mining became the primary source of revenue for the colonial government.
Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa.
The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds is a World in Action documentary film which reported on how billions of pounds' worth of gem diamonds were stripped from South West Africa (Namibia) over a 20-year period by the world's largest diamond mining company. It was broadcast by Thames Television on 28 September 1987 After the First World War, Ernest Oppenheimer held the monopoly over the mining and sale of South West African diamonds, and formed Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM) which was owned by De Beers.
Reginald Frederick Lawrence FRSSAf was a South African arachnologist and myriapodologist at the South African Museum in Cape Town from 1922 until 1935, director of the Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg from 1935 until 1948 and a researcher and staff member of the same museum until 1986.
The Société internationale forestière et minière du Congo, known as Forminière, was a mining company in the Belgian Congo. Founded by the industrialist Jean Jadot in 1906, the company began diamond mining in Kasai in 1913. At its height, Forminière was involved in gold and silver mining, cotton, palm and rubber cultivation, farming, sawmilling and even owned shops. The Belgian colonial state co-owned 50 percent of the company's capital, the rest being held largely by American shareholders.
References
- "História da ENDIAMA E.P". ENDIAMA - Empresa Nacional de Diamante de Angola, EP. 2012. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- De Beers Consolidated Mines § Blood diamonds and the Kimberley Process