ALROSA to set up subsidiary in Angola

ALROSA, a Russian major diamond maker, will establish its subsidiary in Angola: this decision was made at a meeting of the company's executive board held in Mirny on December 25, 2002, the company's press service reported. The Angola-based subsidiary will be set up to coordinate the diamond maker's activities in this country and interact with foreign partners and state authorities.

In the near future ALROSA will complete the second stage of building the Catoca plant, which will boost the company's diamond output by $300-350m a year. The company will also build a power station not far from the plant and participate in the exploration of two new diamond deposits. For that the establishment of a joint venture is planned. ALROSA's investments into the new joint venture will be the company's equipment, technologies and trained staff.

As it was reported earlier, since 1997 ALROSA has been producing diamonds in Angola at one of the world's largest diamond deposits Catoca. The company currently produces $170m in diamonds annually. Apart from Russia and Angola, two other countries participate in this project - Brazil and Israel.

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