Angola's rough diamond production reached 10.7-million carats in the nine months to September, a government official said on Friday, as the country targets another record haul this year.

The southwest African country produced a record 14-million carats of rough diamonds in 2024, making it the third largest producer by output, behind Russia and Botswana. It targets 14.8-million carats this year.

Secretary of state for mineral resources Janio Correa Victor said output was 23.2% higher at the half-year mark but did not provide comparative figures for the first nine months of 2024.

The higher output was driven by operational stability at the Catoca Mining Company and the Luele Mining Company, Victor told a diamond industry event.

The two companies are jointly owned by Angola's state-owned diamond company Endiama and Taadeen Investment, a subsidiary of Oman's sovereign wealth fund.

The Omani firm replaced Russian miner Alrosa as Angola's partner in state-owned diamond projects in 2024, after Alrosa was hit by sanctions following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine two years earlier.

Victor said the value of Angola's rough diamond exports had fallen 14% during the nine months, despite doubling export volumes, due to the collapse in prices for the precious stones.

This was due to competition from synthetic diamonds, combined with global economic uncertainties, trade tariffs imposed by the United States, and the stagnation of the Chinese market since the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.

Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest oil producer after Nigeria, has expanded its diamond output since the end of a civil war in 2002. Before that, the country was considered one of the three primary sources of conflict diamonds, alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.

Angola has bid for a majority stake in De Beers, put up for sale by restructuring parent company Anglo American, potentially setting up a standoff with Botswana, which also seeks to control the giant diamond miner.