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One of the world’s largest diamond companies recently launched a new Earth monitoring tool, which officials say will help thwart illicit commodity trading across central Africa.
Endiama announced the October launch of the satellite, known as Tech-Minas, that will combine artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to efficiently monitor and map the full scope of diamond-related extraction activities in central Africa. Officials with Endiama said that Tech-Minas will equip them to better combat illicit diamond trading, a significant challenge in the global diamond industry.
Tech-Minas will allow Endiama to protect its abundant diamond resources and bring more transparency and efficiency to one of the African continent’s largest industries, according to officials from Endiama.
Endiama is one of Africa’s largest producers of diamonds. The company’s mining operations, centered around the provinces of Bie, Malanje, and Uige, produced upward of 10 million carats last year.
Founded in 1981, Endiama is tasked with prospecting and exploring diamond deposits and marketing diamonds on the international market. Unique for large corporations in Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 40% of Endiama’s employees are women.
Over the last decade, Endiama has implemented a wide-ranging reform package to create new diamond trading policies, develop new infrastructure projects, and support energy and agricultural industries that bolster mining operations.
Among these reforms is the gradual privatization of the company. For the first time in the company’s history, Endiama will sell equity to private investors.
Endiama isn’t the only major enterprise in the region undergoing privatization. Sonangol, a leading oil and gas producer, is expected to sell some 30% of its shares to investors by 2026. Sonangol is one of Africa’s largest oil producers and, like Endiama with diamonds, is responsible for the stewardship of some of the region’s largest petroleum resources.
The infusion of private capital and incentive structures into these enterprises, combined with the development of a space program capable of aiding commercial activities, could signal a period of wider economic growth in central Africa.
