Catoca diamond mine

The Catoca Mine is the fourth largest mine for the degradation of rough diamonds in the world and is located in the north- eastern Angola, some 30 kilometers northwest of Saurimo, Lunda Sul province, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It belongs to an international consortium of Endiama, the state mining company of Angola and the Russian company Alrosa, which each hold a 32.8 % stake, and Odebrecht Mining Services from Brazil with a share of 16.4% and Lev Levievs Daumonty Financing Company, the 18 % belong. The mine sits on a kimberlite vent and is operated as an open pit. Part of mine, next to a miner's housing development, an approximately three -kilometer-long paved runway, where to start and also land jet aircraft.

The area of the mine was first explored in the late 1980s by the Russian society, but the occupation of the area by UNITA made ​​the beginning of exploitation impossible until 1996.

For the extraction of one carat rough diamond one metric tonne of overburden must be moved in Catoca. The mine produced 1.8 million carats in 2000 ( about 360 kg) and the following year about 2.6 million carats ( about 520 kg). The estimated reserves of the mine amount to about 60 million carats ( approximately twelve thousand kilograms ). The value of rough diamonds mined here is 75-100 U.S. dollars per carat. Between 1997 and 2003 here diamonds have been promoted to the value of 910 million U.S. dollars.

In 2009, diamonds generated from the Catoca mine total sales of 122.6 million U.S. dollars, and a net profit of 70 million U.S. dollars. The sales reached 7,050,521 carats at an average price of 62.23 U.S. dollars, equivalent to 78 percent of diamond production in the country.