Engineering & Mining Journal

SEP 2017

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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DIAMOND MINING 62 E&MJ; • SEPTEMBER 2017 www.e-mj.com In its 2016 annual report, Alrosa, which celebrates its 60 th anniversary this year, re- ported group production of 37.4 million ct of rough diamonds, with sales revenues 41% higher than in 2015 at RUB317.1 billion ($4.9 billion). A key event during the year was the reduction in the federal state holding by a further 10.9%, bringing it down to 33%. This followed a 16% sell- off in 2013, with the prospect of the state selling a further 8% stake either this year or next being mooted. However, while last year's sale realized $814 for a federal gov- ernment that is desperate to plug holes in its finances, this was some $90 million less than it had hoped for, with the Financial Times reporting at the time that "investor appetite was affected by poor political rela- tions between Russia and the West." On the operational side, Alrosa reported that the underground section of its Mir mine reached its design capacity of 1 million metric tons per year (mt/y) in 2016, and that it is starting the devel- opment of the Zarya pipe. In addition, it began construction of the infrastructure for the Verkhne-Munskoye deposit, with capex costs to bring a mine into production cited at RUB63 billion ($1 billion). While most of Alrosa's operations are in Russia's Far East, its Severalmaz subsidiary has been developing the Lomonosov de- posit in the Arkangelsk district of northwest Russia. Two of the six pipes that occur there (Arkhangelskaya and Karpinskogo-1) are in production, with the capacity of the ore processing plant having been increased from 1 million mt/y to 4 million mt/y in 2014. The district is also host to the Verkhotinskoye (Grib) mine, oper- ated by Russia's only other diamond producer, Arkhangelskgeoldoby- cha — until earlier this year a subsidiary of the oil-and-gas company, Lukoil, and now owned by the Otkritie Holding group. Having earned US$314 million from rough diamond sales from Grib in 2016, Lu- koil sold the operation to Otkritie for US$1.45 billion in March. In June, Debmarine Namibia's US$157 million SS Nujoma was named at a ceremony at Walvis Bay. The company says that it is the world's largest and most advanced diamond exploration and sampling vessel. (Photo: De Beers)

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