Angola looks to Spain for mining investors to exploit its rich subsoil.

We review the Investor Attraction Conference for Angola held this week at the Gómez Pardo Foundation in Madrid, which served to disseminate the results of PLANAGEO, Angola’s largest programme for producing geological and mining information.

In this context, a meeting was held between the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, H.E. Ms Reyes Maroto, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, H.E. Mr Pedro Duque, and the Secretary-General for the Coordination of Science Policy (MICIU), H.E. Mr Rafael Rodrigo, with the Angolan delegation from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum.

During the event, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque, explicitly expressed his support for “collaboration between Angola and Spain in the field of talent development”, and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, highlighted “the close trade ties between these two countries”. In this way, both ministers wished to show the Government of Spain’s support for the PLANAGEO project, conceived as the largest programme for producing geological and mining information in the African country, which is enabling better management and exploitation of mineral resources, as well as greater knowledge of Angolan geology and its possible industrial applications. Activities included within the project include airborne geophysical and geological-geochemical surveying, geological mapping at different scales, the preparation of maps of metallic minerals and minerals for civil construction, as well as the updating of hydrogeological maps and a broad training and capacity-building programme in various aspects related to sustainable, environmentally responsible mining.

On behalf of the African country’s delegation, those in attendance included H.E. Mr José Luis Matos Agostinho, Ambassador of the Republic of Angola to Spain; H.E. Dr Janio Da Rosa Correa Victor, Secretary of State for Geology and Mines; and Dr Luis Baptista Antonio, Director-General for International Exchange. The National Laboratory of Energy and Geology (LNEG) was represented by Machado Leite, Member of the LNEG Board of Directors.

Also attending the meeting were our Chief Executive Officer, Jorge Suárez, and our General Manager, Paco Cuervo, who serves as Managing Director of the Spanish-Portuguese joint venture awarded the project and responsible for the implementation of PLANAGEO in Angola. Representing the IGME, the entity responsible for the scientific and technical coordination of PLANAGEO (Angola’s Geological, Geophysical and Geochemical Mapping Plan), were Isabel Suárez, Acting Director of IGME; Isabel Rábano, Director of the Department of Geoscientific Infrastructure and Services; Roberto Rodríguez, Director of the Department of Geoscientific Research and Foresight; and Juan José Durán, Director of the Department of Research in Geological Resources.