Alrosa makes significant discovery in 10 years

Alrosa has discovered three kimberlite pipes located 130 km from its Udachny mining division in Sakha. The discovery is estimated to contain diamonds worth $3.5 billion.

This discovery is significant, is estimates a production level of 1.2-2 million tonnes of ore per annum, a figure reached only 10 years ago. The estimated mine life is of 25 years. Alrosa stated that the kimberlite deposit in the Olenyok district of the Repubublic of Sakha (Yakutia) might contain larger reserves, which will be ascertained only after additional exploration into the depths of the mines.

Alrosa has increased its prospecting efforts in the northern part of the Yakutian diamond province, where the discovery has been made and has scaled its exploration outlay up to a level that overruns the maximum limit of diamond mining industry expenditures, during the Soviet era.