Alrosa to Invest Millions in Search for Diamonds

In the next eight years, Russian state-owned diamond company Alrosa intends to spend hundreds of millions of dollars exploring the country and evaluating whether there are areas that are likely to contain concentrated reserves of diamondiferous kimberlites, Rough and Polished reports. A document issued by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources states that Alrosa will dish out $878 million between now and 2020 in the search for new sources of rough diamonds.

The government report notes that some funds will be devoted to analyzing diamond deposits only recently discovered, and other funds will be devoted to analyzing deposits already in production. All told, Alrosa's financial investment in geological exploration in the years to come will amount to approximately $1.95 billion, according to Rough and Polished.

Alrosa first vice-president and executive director Igor Sobolev said that areas to be explored include Yakutia's Zarya, Dalnaya, Majskaya and Verkhne-Munskoye.