Moscow: Russian diamond mining giant Alrosa, which currently has a stake in Angola’s Catoca, is set to up its investment in the southern African country. Catoca produces about 75 percent of Angola’s gems.

Angolan news agency, Angop quoted the company chief executive Andrey Zharkov as saying that Arosa would implement a series of projects in partnership with Endiama and other partners, with an objective to “enable Angola to become one of the world’s major producers of diamonds”.

Zharkov, who met the Angolan Vice President Manuel Vicente, said that a new project was in progress at Tchiuzo.

The project was expected to produce 2.5 million carats annually. He said an investment of $1 billion would be directed towards the Luaxe project, in partnership with Endiama and other partners.

Luaxe was expected to have an annual production of about 10 million carats. Meanwhile, a joint prospecting and geological survey project of the Kimangue kimberlite was also in the offing.

The survey would assess the value of the resource and a budget for the project was about $15 million over a three-year period, according to Angop.