Funding for the Angolan National Geology Plan (Planageo) has been secured, said on Friday in Luanda the minister of Geology and Mining, who described the plan as the main instrument of the government’s strategy for protecting the geology and mining sector.

Francisco Queiroz, told Angolan news agency Angop during the Seventh Ordinary Session of the Multisector Planageo Commission, that problems had been resolved and that, despite the delays, “we are within what is reasonable for the plan to be implemented.”

So far, data from 19 of the 22 blocks provided for in Planageo has been processed and interpreted, or 86% of the total. Based on preliminary data of an aero-geophysical survey 1,623 targets have been identified, 1,526 of which are magnetic and 27 radiometric.

The Minister of Geology and Mining said that among the magnetic targets 225 were considered a priority, and were identified as favourable for prospecting iron, base metals, copper, manganese, titanium, kimberlites, carbonatites, gold, zinc, lead and aluminium.

Of the radiometric anomalies, Queiroz said, 17 were given priority and show favourable signs for the exploration of radioactive minerals such as columbite, zircon and phosphate.

“All these cycles of discovery and selection of priority targets foster the emergence of large mines, which in the medium term will be able to change the economic base of the country,” said the minister.

Queiroz also said that after implementation of Planageo the country will have 470 maps with a survey of the entire territory, and then it would be necessary to plan how these resources will be explored in the long term, “in the next 50 to 100 years.” (macauhub)