https://www.miningweekly.com

Brazilian group sells stake in Angola diamond mine to help pay fines

26th January 2018

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

Font size: - +

The sale of Brazilian group Odebrecht’s 16.4% stake in Angolan diamond mining company Sociedade Mineira de Catoca (Catoca Mining Company) to the mine’s two main shareholders has been approved by Angolan President João Lourenço. He signed the decree authorising the deal earlier this month, Russian diamond mining group Alrosa has reported. The value of the deal is $140-million.

The deal is being executed in two stages. Firstly, Odebrecht will sell its entire stake (which has been held by its subsidiary, Odebrecht Mining Service Investments) to a company called Wargan Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alrosa. Then, later, this equity will be split equally between Alrosa and Angolan State-owned diamond company Endiama. This will result in Alrosa and Endiama each having 41% of Catoca, while third shareholder LL International Holding will hold the remaining 18%. Alrosa will buy the stake using its own funds and the deal will be legally formalised in February or March this year.

Catoca was founded in 1992 to mine the Catoca diamond deposit in the Lunda Sul province. It is reported to be the fourth-largest diamond producer in the world. Alrosa states that it is equipped with two processing plants and processes more than ten-million tons of ore a year. Its annual rough diamond output is about 6.8-million carats. Its reserves are estimated at 60-million carats.

Odebrecht has had to sell its stake in Catoca to raise funds to help pay fines of at least $2.6-billion to authorities in Brazil, the US and Switzerland for a massive bribery scheme operated by the group. From 2001, Odebrecht paid some $788-million in bribes to government officials and political parties in Brazil and other countries.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

The functionality you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION