ALROSA has announced that it has extended its programme for monitoring wild reindeer migration using radio collars in areas around the Udachny Mining and Processing Division in 2018, and has allocated over RUB 1.3 million for this purpose.

The programme not only prevents deaths and helps maintain the wild reindeer population in an area where industrial diamond mining is being carried out, but also aids in the preservation of the traditional way of life of indigenous minority peoples of the North, the Company said.

This year, ten female wild reindeer have been given radio collars in the territory of Olenek Evenki national district using a time-tested methodology. The female reindeer is a herd-forming element, and hence only female reindeer were selected on the advice of environmental experts from the Institute of Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the SB RAS). With this, scientists will be able to track the movement of about 15,000 animals at a time.

The radio collars were put on animals when the reindeer herd was crossing the Olenek River in mid-August. Nikolay Mamaev, Junior Research Associate at the Institute of Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone of the SB RAS explained, "We have been chipping wild reindeer for several years now. Experience has shown that putting radio collars is less stressful for animals when they cross large water barriers. The reason is that reindeer slow down while crossing the river, so it is not difficult to stop them, fix them in a safe position and put a collar. In these conditions, animals feel no pain. The process takes about five minutes. Once the collar is fixed and the sensor starts working, we check it to see whether the equipment hinders the reindeer’s movements. After that, we let the animal go, and the reindeer continues migrating with the herd.”

He added that local residents provided boats and joined as volunteers, while ALROSA purchased and allocated 10 radio collars. The estimated battery life in a collar is 1-1.5 years. Once a battery is discharged, the collar is automatically unfastened from the animal.

This process will enable tracking the movement of the herd of Leno-Olenek wild reindeer population of about 90,000 animals.

Polina Anisimova, Deputy Chief Engineer for Ecology and Work with Indigenous and Small-numbered Peoples of the North, Head of ALROSA Environmental Center, said, "Monitoring the migration of wild reindeer in the area of operation of Udachny Mining and Processing Division is required primarily to prevent death and maintain wild reindeer population in the area of industrial diamond mining, as well as to preserve the traditional way of life of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North. Based on the results of the past years’ monitoring and recommendations for correct arrangement of reindeer passages at different sections of the road, the Company has developed and is constructing a service lane to Verkhne-Munskoe deposit, where the reindeer migration takes place.”

Elaborating on the project she added that all passages have a gentler slope and the online tracking system for the migration of wild reindeer helps the Institute of Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone of the SB RAS provide data on the location of reindeer in real-time.

ALROSA added that it will continue monitoring the reindeer migration and putting collars in 2019 and will be doing so each year throughout the mine life of Verkhne-Munskoe deposit.