The interim director general of Geoangol said that with the entry into Angola of internationally recognized mining companies the country must continue to work to raise the quality of the services in the field of borehole drilling developed in this segment of geoscience in order to make the sector increasingly competitive.

Domingos Kimba Baptista, who was speaking during his first interview since being appointed to the post at the company’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting last month, has also outlined the challenges ahead of him.

“I feel at home, but there are many challenges. When Geoangol was set up, we initially wanted to serve the local market. Now, with global companies entering our country, such as Anglo American, Rio Tinto and De Beers, for example, with a very high level of demand in terms of internationally accepted standards, our first challenge is to improve the operational procedures of the services currently in place, in order to meet the expectations of these large multinationals,” he said.

He also said that Geoangol’s core business, in addition to drilling services, included laboratory analysis and mineralogical characterization services, process diagrams and laboratory services that could include Angola’s first gold refinery.

He also made it known that there are other companies in the sector providing the same services in the country, such as Mitchel Drilling and Kodo Drilling, thus increasing competition, hence the need to invest permanently in technical and technological resources and in the ongoing training of human resources.