World’s top diamond producer by output, Alrosa (MCX:ALRS), had quite a month in October as the Russian miner managed to find three large rough, gem-quality stones ranging from 82 to 163 carats at the Jubilee kimberlite pipe of its Aikhalsky Mining unit in the country’s northeast.
The diamonds recovered by Alrosa are an 82.82-carat and a 108.34-carat transparent yellow-tinted stones, as well as a 163.11-carat rough yellow-hue diamond.
“Simultaneous extraction of three large rough diamonds, two of which are over 100 carats, within such a short period of time is a one-off event especially when it comes to gem-quality diamonds,” the director of the company’s United Selling Organization (USO), Evgeny Agureev, said in the statement.
As a rule, Agureev noted, only 5-10 similar stones over 100 carats may be recovered within a year, and they are always in great demand at auctions.
The three diamonds will be delivered to Alrosa’s USO for a detailed assessment in the coming days.
Alrosa’s Jubilee pipe is famous for its large finds. A few diamonds from 50 to 138 carats were recovered from the deposit in the past two years, including a 76.07-carat diamond, which was named in honour of 70 Years of the Soviet Union’s Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 against Nazi Germany.
It was discovered in 1975 and ranks among the largest primary diamond deposits both in Yakutia and abroad.
The company’s business unit Aikhal Mining accounted for over 30% of Alrosa’s total raw diamonds in 2016. It generated 12.2 million carats, worth $1.2 billion, according to the firm.
From January to September, Jubilee has produced 6.57 million carats of rough diamonds or about 22% of the company’s total diamond output, Alrosa said.
Source: Mining.com
