The Fucauma Diamond Mine is a

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

under construction in the

Lunda Norte Province Lunda Norte ( en, North Lunda) is a province of Angola. It has an area of 103,760 km² and a population of 862,566. Angola's first President, Agostino Neto, made Lucapa the provincial capital after independence, but the capital was later mov ...

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. The mine is owned by a consortium of diamond mining companies, the two largest holders being

Endiama Endiama E.P. (''Empresa Nacional de Diamantes E.P.'') is the national diamond company of Angola and it is the exclusive concessionary of mining rights in the domain of diamonds. Angola's state-run diamond company Endiama produced 8.55 million car ...

with 40 percent ownership and Trans Hex with 35% ownership. A feasibility study was done, which included the second phase of bulk sampling and

drilling Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at ra ...

was completed in February 2004. The result of the study was a plan for a US$15 million

capital expansion Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

programme, that would lead to a full-scale mining production capacity of 750 000 m3/year that is anticipated to yield 120 in the first year of full-scale mining. Pilot production was underway early in 2005 with full-scale mining expected to begin six months later. The Fucauma mine is expected to produce approximately over a four-year period, providing earnings of US$70 million. Mining operations were suspended in May 2009 due to a decline in diamond demand caused by the late-2000s financial crisis. Trans Hex announced in August 2011 that it planned to withdraw from its two Angola joint-ventures with Endiama—Fucauma and Luarica—after failing to reach an agreement with the government of Angola (which owns the other major partner, Endiama). Endiama stated that it planned to restart operations alone.

References

Diamond mines in Angola Surface mines in Angola {{Angola-geo-stub