Angola said 127 cooperatives of artisanal diamond explorers in the country's central Bie Province will soon receive bank credit to help sustain their operations.
The Bie Province shares a border with the province of Lunda Sul in the northeast, where the Catoca kimberlite diamond mine was located.
Geology and Mining Department director in Cuito, Carlos Gomes Cesar, was quoted by Angola Press Agency (Angop) as saying that the credit facility was also part of a government effort to end illegal diamond exploration in the region and to help enforce laws regulating the exploration, purchase and sale of diamonds by artisanal miners.
Cesar said they had also issued mining passes and credentials to artisanal diamond miners to help regularise their operations.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
