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Angola clamps down on illegal mining
Julie Bain
Posted: Thu, 27 Mar 2008

[miningmx.com] -- THE Angolan government plans to draft legislation which will clamp down on unregulated and illicit mining of diamonds, gold and uranium in the country.

Agencia Nacional para o Investimento Privado (ANIP), the state-run investment-promotion agency, reported in a monthly news letter the government intends to have drafted the new legislation by April this year.

There are many artisanal diamond miners in Angola and the government is keen to stop illegal mining and, perhaps, gain some revenue by regulating the small scale miners.
a problem for a very long time
Ben Smit, general manager for the Angolan operations of AIM-traded Petra Diamonds, said there are many artisanal diamond miners in the southern African country.

Many of these miners are not Angolans but come from neighbouring countries, having illegally crossed the border. The diamonds they find are usually illegally exported, resulting in a loss of revenue for the government. Angola has large borders that are difficult to control with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the north and Zambia to the east.

"Illicit diamond trading has been a problem for a very long time. There are a lot of Congolese and people from as far afield as Cameroon who cross the border dig illicitly and then they just walk back across the border. Angola sees no benefit from this, hence the renewed effort to crack down on illegal artisanal mining and to try and formalise it," said Smit.

He said artisanal miners take diamonds from rivers and alluvial sites and many can make a living, but some of the deposits they are mining would not be enough to sustain an established mining company.

Earlier this year state diamond company Endiama said it expected that 10 million carats of diamonds would be mined from Angolan operations this year from a mixture of kimberlite and alluvial mines, with alluvial mines producing the most diamonds.

If the government does introduce laws which result in improved regulation of the artisanal miners it may take some of the pressure off large established mining and exploration companies which are prospecting for and mining diamonds in Angola.

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As it stands mining companies are obliged by government to make sure there are no illegal miners on their mining and prospecting concessions. And given that your average concession is 3,000 square kilometres, Smit says this is a pretty difficult task.

Petra Diamonds is one of several miners prospecting for diamonds in Angola with De Beers and BHP Billiton also carrying out exploration work. Petra is exploring an area west of Saurimo where the company is involved in two concessions together with the Angolan state diamond company Endiama and local partners covering an area of 6,000 square km.

Another issue affecting mining companies in Angola is that as of the beginning of this year government introduced new immigration legislation which has made it more difficult to secure the required work visas for any skilled employees that companies might want to bring into the country.

"The changes are slowing everything down and affecting us and other major operators in Angola. The new legislation has cracked down very hard on how you can work up there.

"It takes a long time to get work permits, sometimes up to 6 to 8 months. While we would prefer to hire locals, Angola currently has a severe shortage of the necessary skills and we have to bring in expatriate staff," said Smit.

"Whilst we fully understand the need for strict measures to control immigration, legally operating and good corporate citizens like ourselves, BHP Billiton and De Beers need the government's support with this issue."