Russia’s state-controlled diamond company Alrosa has set a target of $2,8-billion in diamond sales over 2005 and $2,2-billion of that will be in rough diamonds, said Antwerp Facets, a news service for the Diamond High Council in Belgium.
Should all these goods be exported, the figure will rival that expected of Botswana, the world’s leading diamond producer and exporter of rough diamonds, although the diamonds from Botswana can be expected to have significantly higher per-carat values.
In 2004, Botswana exported 31-million carats of diamonds. No value has yet been released, but over the previous year, when 30,4-million carats were exported, the value was a record $2,4-billion.
Botswana’s exports are largely of high quality gems and the per carat value over 2003 was $78,5.
The carat value of Russian export diamonds in 2003 was $23 and rose to $35 over 2004 to September.
But the per carat value of Russia’s total production is higher, it was $51 in 2003, rising to $58 over 2004 to June.
Alrosa president A Nichiporuk is quoted as saying his company intends to spend $58,8-million on expansion this year.
This is expected to focus on developing underground operations at the company’s major mine in the Sakha Republic because reserves in the open pit mine are apparently almost exhausted. – Sapa