Alrosa, the world’s biggest diamond producer, reported a 17% decline in diamond production for the first quarter of 2018 to 7.4 million carats owing to production slowdowns caused by an accident last year and the processing of lower grade ore.
“The key factors behind the decline were reduced production at the Mirny Division, which was caused by the shutdown of the Mir underground mine following the August 2017 accident, processing of lower grade ore from the Jubilee pipe and termination of processing of ore from the Udachny open-pit after open-pit mining there was completed,” said Igor Sobolev, first deputy CEO – executive director of Alrosa.
“At the same time, the company continues growing production at its key expansion projects: in Q1 2018, output at the Udachny underground mine and Severalmaz demonstrated an increase year-on-year. The production plan for fiscal year 2018 is 36.6 million carats,” Sobolev added.
Indicatively, in the first quarter of 2018, Alrosa sold 13.3 million carats of diamonds, including 10.1 million carats of gem-quality diamonds at an average price of $154 per carat, and 3.2 million carats of industrial diamonds at an average price of $8 per carat. Rough and polished diamond sales amounted to $1.582 billion and $23.7 million respectively.