Catoca Diamond Mine to Get New Mill to Keep Pace

A new mine will be built at the largest diamond mine in the southern African nation of Angola, Bloomberg reports. A representative of the Catoca mine's operators, Sociedade Mineira de Catoca, said that a sixth mine would be added to the project, it order to maintain the same rate of rough diamond production for the next thirty years.

For the diamond company to invest large sums of money in the construction of a new mill must rest on the assumption that increasing numbers of citizens of developing nations such as China and India will purchase diamond jewelry in the foreseeable future, a trend which will drive up the price of the stones, making mining them at greater depths profitable.

Over the year, miners must dig deeper into the earth to extract ore, and this becomes more difficult over time because the deeper the earth, the more compact it is, and therefore the more time and energy is necessary to process it in the search for precious gems.

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