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 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.
Angola's history in brief
The Portuguese arrived 1475 at the coast of what today is Angola. Until the 19th century, they practically remained confined to the bridgeheads of Luanda, Benguela and Moçâmedes and their hinterland. They used these vantage points in order to play a pivotal role in the Atlantic slave trade: until 1830 well over a million Angolan people were exported as slaves, mainly to Brazil, but also to the Caribbean and North America. They obtained slaves through raiding, but mostly by buying them from key figures in the African kingdoms east of Luanda. Territorial conquests were hesitantly attempted during the 19th century, but the occupation of what then became Angola was not achieved until the 1920s. Under Portuguese colonial rule in Angola, cities, towns and villages were founded, railroads were opened, ports built, and a Westernized society was being gradually developed. Since the 1920s, Portugal's administration has showed an increasing interest in developing the country's economy and social infrastructure.
In 1956 the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) began to fight Portuguese rule and the forced labor camps where the Portuguese were confining many Africans. Many of them were relocated from their homes. In 1974 the Carnation Revolution in Portugal caused the Estado Novo regime to collapse, and Angola become independent from Portugal in 1975.
Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA movement began fighting his political rivals soon after independence and gained the support of the United States and South Africa because of his rivals' ties to communism and Cuba. The MPLA leader Agostinho Neto declared himself president of the country with the backing of Cuba and founded a Marxist–Leninist inspired regime. After Neto died in 1979, José Eduardo dos Santos became his successor. Unrest and civil war ensued for the next 27 years between UNITA and the MPLA. But in the early 1990s UNITA lost the support of both the United States and South Africa because of UNITA's refusal to accept a settlement that implied their peaceful integration in the multi-party system introduced by the MPLA in 1991. Cuba also pulled out of the civil war leaving the MPLA and Unita to fight each other without the support of world powers.
During the war the diamond mines were constantly being fought over, making it unsafe for miners to work, and usually after the mine was re-taken by the other side there would be land mines planted everywhere. This made it difficult to extract the diamonds but did not prevent either the MPLA or UNITA from using the diamonds to help fund the war. The vast amount of diamonds and oil to be mined could have funded the civil war for another 27 years, but UNITA leader Savimbi was killed by MPLA soldiers in 2002. This led to an almost-immediate ceasefire.
Diamonds
Although there are some reports of diamond exports from Angola by the Portuguese as early as the eighteenth century, modern industrial diamond mining as we know it today began in 1912, when gems were discovered in a stream in Lunda region in the northeast. In 1917 Diamang was granted the concession for diamond mining and prospecting, which it held until independence. The government obtained control of the company in 1977. A general law on mining activities (Law 5/79) enacted in April 1979 gave the state the exclusive right to prospect for and exploit minerals. Accordingly, a state diamond-mining enterprise, the National Diamond Company (Emprêsa Nacional de Diamantes--Endiama), was founded in 1981 and acquired the government's 77 percent share in Diamand. UNITA selected the diamond mining industry as a principal target, and soon crippled mining efforts. The two foreign companies involved in servicing and operating the industry pulled out of Angola by 1986 and mid-1986 Diamang was formally dissolved, leaving large outstanding debts.
