The East and West Kasai Provinces are impacted by the De Beers' operational shutdown. Last year, De Beers closed it office in Kananga, West Kasai. They consolidated operations in Mbuji Mayi, East Kasai.
De Beers Halts Diamond Exploration Project in Congo
De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, halted exploration in Democratic Republic of Congo as the declining value in gems made the project unviable.
“The DRC remains highly prospective, but we cannot ignore the current global economic crisis,” Marie-Chantal Kaninda, De Beers’s head of administration in Congo, said in a statement e- mailed today from the capital, Kinshasa. “When economic conditions improve, De Beers will assess new opportunities for accessing prospective ground holdings in this country.”
De Beers said in February it suspended mining at a Botswana venture responsible for a fifth of global diamond supply and would borrow $500 million from shareholders. Jewelry sales are plunging as the global economic slowdown forces even the wealthiest consumers to curb spending on luxury goods.
De Beers found 14 kimberlites since starting exploration in Congo’s central Western Kasai province in 2005, it said in the statement. Kimberlites are diamond-bearing rock formations. The company handed its camp in Bena Luabeya, near the diamond center of Mbuji Mayi, to the local population, it said.
Congo has run out of funds after the country’s extractive industries lost value, the International Monetary Fund’s Africa Director Brian Ames said March 31. Some of the country’s copper and cobalt mines and smelters have been shut after metal prices fell.
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