Dundo – The Cuango Mining Society (SMC), in the province of Lunda-Norte, expects for the second half of this year, to increase diamond production levels from the current 23k to 28k carats/month and consequently increase the tax contribution.
The information was provided this Monday by the interim director for Mining Operations, Hamilton Carvalho, to the press on the sidelines of a children's event, held within the scope of the company's Social Responsibility actions, highlighting that after the prospecting work carried out over two years, the existence of new profitable deposits in the mining concession was confirmed.
He said that work is underway to set up a new pre-treatment washing plant with a processing capacity of 125 cubic meters of gravel/hour.
According to Hamilton Carvalho, the company has an aggregate of 6 to 7k carats of diamonds in its trade balance, a fact that will allow sales in the order of 350 to 4,000 dollars/carat, compared to the current USD 280.
He highlighted that annually SMC's partners approve the provision of an investment in the order of 11 million dollars, which has been applied to the acquisition, maintenance of machines and payment of salaries.
The mine, located in the municipality of Cuango, has a concession area of five thousand square kilometers and employs 788 workers.
Located in a concession area of 1945 square kilometers, the company began its activity in 2007, with Endiama as shareholders, with 40%, ITM (38%) and Lumanhe (22%).
HD/CF/jmc
