Endiama plans to increase production

 

Eye to produce 12 million carats in 2023 

The National Diamond Company of Angola (Endiama EP) plans to increase its production to 12 million carats in 2023, surpassing last year's result, which recorded a figure of around nine million carats. 

According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Endiama, Ganga Júnior, achieving this goal will essentially depend on improving the production structure of the mines in operation and launching new exploration projects.  

Speaking to the press, on the sidelines of the working visit that the heads of the Institute for the Management of Assets and State Participations (IGAPE) carried out to the state-owned diamond company, the manager also pointed out the continuous transformation of the functioning of small cooperatives in industrial activities as another challenge for 2023. 

In this regard, he added, the company has already registered success stories, whose semi-industrial activities in the field of mining, which were initially dominated by; garimpo, were converted into industrial units. As for the results obtained in the last five years, the PCA recalled that, in 2017, Endiama registered a loss of around 3.5 million dollars, a scenario that has improved substantially, having reached close to 80 million dollars, in 2021. 

This result, he underlined, was also obtained as a result of the improvement in the production and sale of diamonds, which made it possible to reach an annual turnover volume of around two billion dollars, in 2022, against approximately USD one billion recorded in 2018. 

On the occasion, Ganga Júnior recalled that the process of implementing the Diamond Exchange in Angola continues its normal course, with forecast to be carried out in the second half of this year, in a provisional headquarters. 

He considered the implementation of the Diamond Exchange as an innovation that will maximize the value chain of this mineral and increasingly improve the performance of producing companies and buyers. He mentioned that it is a new process that requires changing the current marketing policy, as it is a new institution and with little presence in countries that produce this mineral. For his part, the administrator of IGAPE, Raimundo Santa Rosa, recognized that there were satisfactory improvements in Endiana's accounts, compared to the previous period, as almost all of the company's reserves or liabilities were resolved.  

Despite this, the official pointed out the definition and separation of the core/key activity, as well as the consolidation of the accounts of its subsidiaries as the main challenges that Endiama needs to overcome in the near future.  

"We see that Endiama has a set of activities that are not part of its core business, a fact that makes it difficult to clarify for the entrepreneur interested in investing in this subsector, for example", he said. Regarding the process of privatization of State assets, the official added that the publication in Diário da República of a specific diploma to extend the term of the privatization program of listed companies is underway.  

According to the source, this diploma stipulates the extension of the period of the privatization program for another three years, being in line with the Electronic Public Services (SEPE), designed by the Angolan Government.  

As for the privatization of Endiama and Sonangol, the administrator of IGAPE referred that the process of the two public companies is in the preparation phase, which involves the process of sanitation, organization and accounting adequacy to international standards.  

IGAPE's visit to Endiama, as part of the reinforcement of monitoring the operational activity of public companies in the public domain, essentially served to assess the performance of the state-owned diamond company in the last five years, as well as to make known the objectives that will mark the life of Endiama in the future. Founded on January 15, 1981, Endiama is a national company dedicated to the prospecting, exploration and sale of diamonds.