This June Alrosa resumed production at the Zarya open pit of the Aikhal Division which accounted for 0.9% of the total output of the group in 2020. The company said the first ore has been dispatched to the stockpile at the plant #14 for further processing.
Alrosa suspended production at Zarya pipe in May 2020 as part of the management action plan amidst the global coronavirus outbreak.
On the back of diamond market recovery that started in the second half of 2020, Alrosa received regulatory approval to resume mining operations at Zarya. In 2021, the company plans to produce over 1.2 million tonnes of ore.
Located 2km from Aikhal deposit, the Zarya pipe was discovered in 1973. Alrosa started developing the Zarya deposit in 2016 with the first ore mined in April 2019.
Zarya’s diamond production grew 576% from 38,000 carats in 2019 to 257,000 carats in 2020.