The Angolan government and Chinese technicians are carrying out a cartographic survey of the country to establish where its minerals are located, their quality and quantity and how best to explore them, said the Angolan ambassador to China, João Garcia Bires.

In an interview with the Forum Macau quarterly newsletter, the Angolan diplomat said that over two years of work Planageo (National Geology Plan) has surveyed a third of Angola and those maps will be studied and evaluated by the Angolan authorities and Chinese technicians.

Garcia Bires also said that during the cartographic survey, Angolan technicians visited China for seven months to “refresh and improve their knowledge and techniques to read and interpret the collected data.”

According to the diplomat, the great advantage of Planageo is to liberate Angola from its dependence on oil by locating iron, diamonds and other mineral resources in the country’s subsoil.

Referring to the relationship between Angola and China, Garcia Bires considered that Luanda’s future international airport “will be, after the centrality of Kilamba Kiaxi on the outskirts of Luanda, one of the milestones that will perpetuate bilateral cooperation.”

According to the diplomat completion of the New Luanda International Airport (NAIL) is scheduled for the end of the current year or the beginning of the next. Garcia Bires recalled that NAIL will be one of the largest airports in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Chinese technology has a strong presence at the airport, which was designed to meet the domestic demand of a country with 22 million inhabitants and also because it is a natural international corridor. In the future, geographically speaking, Angola can compete in air transport with other international markets,” said the diplomat.(macauhub)