PLANAGEO: A Decade of Public Geoscience and What It Changed for Licence Applicants

The National Geology Plan (PLANAGEO) was launched by the Government of Angola and implemented by the Instituto Geológico de Angola under MIREMPET supervision. Following an international tender, execution in southern Angola was awarded to the UTE PLANAGEO consortium — Spain's IGME, Portugal's LNEG and Impulso Industrial Alternativo — covering approximately 480,000 km². The contract, signed in October 2013, was worth USD 115,312,500; field and mapping work ran from July 2014 to the end of 2022.

The programme delivered a regional airborne geophysical survey (magnetic and radiometric) and geological mapping at 1:250,000 nationally, with detailed mapping at 1:100,000 and synthesis maps at 1:500,000 and 1:1,000,000. Geochemical campaigns were run at 1:250,000, alongside targeted studies at 1:50,000 including metallic mineral resource maps (CRMMA) and industrial rock and mineral maps (CARMINA), plus hydrogeological work in the Kalahari basin.

The practical effect is regulatory as much as scientific. Public tender is mandatory where, in light of studies conducted or approved by the body responsible for geology, an area is judged to be of great geological potential. Better public data narrows the space in which ground can be acquired by simple application, and raises the standard of evidence a holder is expected to return.

Fact vs. interpretation: Programme scope, consortium composition, contract value and date, area, map scales and deliverables are quoted from the peer-reviewed account by the executing institutions; the mandatory-tender rule is quoted from Chambers. The concluding paragraph is Luvili's interpretation. No World Bank financing role for PLANAGEO could be verified in any open source and none is claimed here.