Angola’s state-owned diamond company, Endiama, says its collaboration with Russia's Alrosa PJSC has discouraged certain buyers, although its output is not subject to Western sanctions.
Alrosa owns a 41% stake in Angola's Catoca project, which also owns just over half of the new Luele mine.
Bloomberg quoted Endiama chief executive José Ganga Júnior as saying that Angola occasionally experiences challenges with clients in certain markets due to Alrosa's ownership of the mines.
He, however, could not reveal whether it was under pressure to remove Alrosa from Catoca.
“Alrosa has no interference in Angola’s operations,” said Ganga.
To mitigate the Kremlin's capacity to finance its invasion of Ukraine, the Group of Seven Nations resolved to prohibit the importation of Russian diamonds at the beginning of this year.
While the embargo initially encompassed all imports of rough diamonds directly from Russia, it was expanded in March to include stones treated in third countries.
The US and EU also sanctioned Alrosa.
Ganga Júnior said Endiama should establish a method to monitor and identify the diamonds that are mined to comply with G-7 sanctions.
Alrosa contributed to the establishment of both the Catoca and Luele mines.
The Russians think that their Angolan diamond investment is impeding Catoca's development, and as a result, they informed Interfax early this year that Alrosa may consider selling its Angolan holdings.
Angola's Minister of Minerals and Petroleum, Minister Diamantino Azevedo, said in May that the nation's lengthy partnership with Alrosa had become "toxic."
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief, Rough&Polished
