Angola has seized a stake in the nation’s biggest diamond miner, giving it majority control of one of the world’s largest gem firms in a move that marks the waning influence of Chinese investors in the southern African nation.

Catoca owns the world’s fourth-largest diamond mine. Catoca’s owners include Russia’s Alrosa, the world’s biggest diamond miner and subject of US sanctions, Angolan state diamond company Endiama and until recently, LLI International.

“The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Angola blocked LLI’s participation in Catoca in 2021 and transferred control of this 18 per cent stake to the state body IGAPE,” which manages government shares in companies, Catoca said in a statement released this month. “Therefore, Angola holds 59 per cent of the shares in Catoca.”