Omani firm replaces sanctions-hit Alrosa in Angolan diamond miner

LUANDA (Reuters) – A subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund of Oman is replacing Russian sanctions-hit Alrosa in Angola’s state-controlled diamond miner Catoca, an Angolan official said on Thursday.

Angola has been under pressure to cease its long-standing partnership with Russian state-controlled Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by volume, since 2022 when the West imposed sanctions on Alrosa for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

From now on, we have a new partner and this partner is the one that will exercise the rights that until now belonged to Alrosa,” Diamantino Azevedo, Angola’s minister of mineral resources, oil and gas, told a national radio station.

“Alrosa, a partner of Endiama in the Catoca mining company, will cease to be a partner of this company and, consequently, also a partner of the Luele mining company,” he added.

Alrosa, which owned 41% in Catoca, declined to comment.

Azevedo did not provide any further details about the deal with the Omani firm.

Having sanctions-hit Alrosa as a shareholder in the Angolan diamond miner was affecting “Angola’s credibility in the international diamond market,” the minister said.

(Reporting by Miguel Gomes in Luanda; writing by Polina Devitt in London; editing by David Evans)