Lubango - Angola needs to use its mineral resources with more rationality, respect for the environment and consideration for the communities surrounding the mining areas, the Minister for Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino de Azevedo said Tuesday in Lubango.
The Cabinet minister, who was speaking at a meeting with the academic community of the Mandume Ya Ndemofayo University to salute the Mining Workers' Day, which is marked today, and whose central act Huila is hosting, defended the need to avoid "extremism" in the exploitation of resources to avoid greater evils in the future.
"We should not be extremists, but rather seek balance, because life on earth will not and cannot be made without mineral resources," he warned.
On the occasion, Diamantino de Azevedo spoke of ongoing projects in the sector such as the beginning of manganese exploration in Malange, as well as the transfer of the headquarters of Endiama Mining and Fundação Brilhante to Dundo (Lunda Norte), taking them closer to the mining operations, in order to be more active in the projects the group develops.
The minister also reiterated the need for the country to increase its capacity to polish diamonds, which currently stands at just 1 percent of its gross product.
He said that this situation should be reversed, later this year, with the inauguration of the Saurimo Diamond Cutting Centre.
On the other hand, Diamantino de Azevedo made it known that with the new geoscientific laboratories that the country is gaining, one of which was inaugurated today in Huíla, conditions are being created so that, little by little, Angola will stop sending ore samples abroad.
