Alrosa Starts Mining at New Kimberlite Pipe

Alrosa Starts Mining at New Kimberlite Pipe

Alrosa has started operations at additional kimberlite pipe at its Lomonosov deposit, one of the largest diamond mines in Russia.

The state-run miner said on Tuesday (8 July) that the Karpinsky-2 pipe, one of six at Lomonosov, held more than 40m tonnes of diamond bearing ore.

Its subsidiary, Severalmaz, already mines two other pipes at the site in Arkhangelsk, northwestern Russia – Arkhangelskaya and Karpinsky-1 – and is now mining Karpinsky-2.

Alrosa, currently sanctioned by the G7 nations, said in March that it was suspending production at four low-margin mines – Zapolyarny, Magnitny, Khara-Mas and Ochuos – because of a “deep crisis” in the industry.

It is also selling a large proportion of its output to Gokhran, the state repository of precious metals and gemstones.

Gokhran has historically functioned as a buffer, stockpiling diamonds during market downturns and selling them back when demand recovers, for example, during the 2009 financial crisis.

Source: IDEX