China's Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have created a joint venture to mine diamonds in Eastern Kasai province and plan to take the company public.

The 50-50 venture may produce six million carats annually by 2016, the DRC's Mines Ministry reported. Anhui will pay US$4.2 million for its half of the venture, plus a signing bonus of as much as US$61 million, and invest an estimated US$100 million in infrastructure, the documents show, Bloomberg News reported.

Congo was the world's second-largest producer of natural industrial diamonds and accounted for about 5.5 percent of gemstone production in 2012. Last year, the country produced about 20 million carats, down from 29 million carats in 2006, according to central bank figures.

Anhui is also a partner with the Zimbabwean government in Anjin Investments Ltd., which operates in the Marange diamond fields.

The new Congolese joint venture, known as Societe Anhui-Congo d'Investissement Minier Sprl, or SACIM, has two diamond-exploration permits in Tshibwe, about 50 kilometers from Mbuji-Mayi, the country's main diamond trading center. The company estimates total reserves at 158 million carats.

Congo will receive US$9.15 million of the signing bonus up front, and another US$10.1 million at production, Bloomberg reported. Anhui will gradually pay the rest after the company is listed on an unspecified stock exchange and diamonds are sold, the contract says, without providing more details.

As part of its investment, Anhui will build a 4.6-megawatt hydropower plant near Tshibwe and a new building for Congo's diamond regulator at the N'Djili airport in Kinshasa, the capital.