N e w s

Soon the number of companies allowed to mine diamonds may well grow. This was announced by Alexey Kudrin, the Minister of Finance in his interview to NTV channel. According to Mr. Kidrin "Today the main diamond cites are being exploited by "ALROSA", but not all of deposits belong to this company. The Ministry of Natural Resources may transfer licences, and therefore, the right for exploitation o other companies - for example, to "SeverAlmaz" or "LukOil". We will encourage this".

"In terms of this new concept we will be able to develop not only the sales system of Russian diamonds without regard to "ALROSA"s Agreement with "De Beers", but also to develop our own domestic cutting market. In order to achieve that we must liberise the market and to get rid of its excessive control of the state ".