Releasing its operational results for H1 2017, Russian miner ALROSA Group said that diamond production grew 14% year-on-year to reach 19.3 million carats, largely on account of the ramp up at Aikhal, Mir and Udachny underground mines and the processing of higher grade ore from the Jubilee pipe. The Company said that the overall diamond grade increased by 19% on the average.

Giving further details, ALROSA said that it processed 16.2 million tons of ore and sand during the six month period, which yielded the 19.3 mn cts as compared to the 16.9 mn tons processed in the same period in 2016, which yielded 16.9 mn cts. The average yield in H1 2017 was 1.19 cpt as against the 1 cpt the Company reported a year earlier.

ALROSA said that higher diamond grade from the pipes Yubileynaya, Zarnitsa, Karpinskogo-1, Mir underground mine, and sand from alluvial deposits has been the major growth driver, while the Aikhal and Udachny underground mines also demonstrated a growth in output.

For the first six months of this year, Aikhal Mining and Processing Division, accounting for more than a third of the whole diamond output by ALROSA Group, extracted 6.9 million carats of rough diamonds, 26% higher year-on-year. Mirnyi Mining and Processing Division increased production by 13% up to 4.4 million carats, Udachny – by 29% up to 2.1 million carats, Nyurba – by 2% up to 3.4 million carats, Lomonosov – by 28% up to 1.2 million carats.

Igor Sobolev, ALROSA First Vice President said, “Most of the Company’s major mining and processing divisions demonstrated an upward trend in the production results–both in terms of production output and in terms of diamond grade.”

The Company also said that preliminary figures indicate that ALROSA Group’s rough diamond sales in Q2 2017 amounted to 10.201 million carats, including 8.048 million carats of gem-quality rough diamonds at the average price of US$ 138.4/carat, and 2,153 million carats of industrial-grade rough diamonds at the average price of US$ 8.5/carat. Rough diamond sales for Q2 2017 amounted to as much as US$ 1,132.2 million. Polished diamond sales for this period amounted to US$ 22.7 million.