Peace accord should boost Angolan mining

The end of almost 20 years of fighting in Angola should ignite an economic revival in the African country and enable its fledgling mining industry to take flight.

The country’s two warring factions met recently to initial a peace accord, the formal signing of which is expected by Nov. 15.

“Angola is regarded by some geologists to be the second-richest mineral resources country on the continent after South Africa,” says Thomas Poupore, who visited the country as representative of a Canadian diamond exploration company.

Poupore, based in Sudbury, Ont., says Angola’s mineral resources are “richer than those of Mexico and equal to those of Chile and Venezuela.” “All indications uncovered in my many trips to Angola show that 3-to-4 world-class deposits exist of copper, cobalt, gold, platinum, nickel and chromium, with many, many other economic deposits of the same minerals,” he told The Northern Miner.

“Angola is slightly larger than South Africa and half the country has diamonds in its rivers. No major pipe has been discovered yet as Angola is one of the few countries in the world that has never been flown with airborne geophysics, the potential is phenomenal to say the least.”

Civil war broke out in Angola, which extends about 1,300 km from north to south and which is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, following its independence from Portugal in 1975.

The formerly Marxist government, controlled by the Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (which was backed by Cuba) and the rebel group known as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), signed a ceasefire agreement in May, 1991. The agreement led to the country’s first free elections in September of that year. However, that first peace agreement collapsed at the end of 1992 when UNITA refused to accept the outcome of elections, which it lost.

The president of Angola is Jose Eduardo dos Santos; the leader of the UNITA rebels is Jonas Savimbi.

The Oct. 31 initialing of the long-awaited peace pact — in the Zambian capital Lusaka, where the peace negotiations were conducted — was greeted with both hope and skepticism as heavy fighting continued in the country, diplomats said. The 66-page agreement is the result of year-long negotiations. The declaration of a ceasefire is expected, following the formal signing of the peace accord.

The end of the Cold War and the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa have had a profound effect on countries in the southern portion of the African continent. With the exception of diamond giant De Beers, South Africa’s mining houses have not been welcome in Angola because of the apartheid policy of the former South African government, Poupore says. Angola, which has a thriving offshore oil industry and an abundance of asphalt deposits, has no mining concession holders, Poupore says. “All lands in Angola, with the exception of some diamond concessions controlled by ENDIAMA, the state mining company, are open and controlled by the government,” he says, adding that the government is warm to the idea of joint-venturing.

The country’s mining records are housed in the capital city, Luanda, where, Poupore says, the new peace accord is expected to give way almost immediately to a new Mining Act.

Meanwhile, in Mozambique, another former Portuguese colony which gained independence in 1975, United Nations peacekeepers may have achieved success in bringing a permanent end to civil war and staging free elections. Under their aegis, the peace pact signed by the government and the rebels of the Mozambique National Resistance in October, 1992, has not been perfectly implemented. Nevertheless, following multi-party elections in late October, it now appears unlikely that war will start again, as happened in Angola, observers said.