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N e w s
SEPTEMBER 1
The commercial extraction of diamonds at Europe's biggest deposit, Lomonosov in Archangel Region, will begin in 2005 and cost about 300m dollars, instead of 700m dollars as estimated earlier.
The figures were reported by Archangel Region governor Anatoliy Yefremov at a news conference after a visit to the region by Vyacheslav Shtyrov, head of the Russian diamond monopoly Alrosa and Valeriy Rudakov, head of the State Reserves of Precious Metals and Stones.
Asked about the cost of the project, Yefremov said that according to the De Beers estimate, the beginning of commercial extraction would cost at least 700m dollars. Until recently De Beers had intended to develop the field. The feasibility study made by Alrosa sets costs at 424m dollars but "we think the project can be sized down by 100m dollars to 150m dollars more," Yefremov said. In May Alrosa agreed with De Beers on buying involvement in the project.
"There is full mutual understanding between the regional administration and the Alrosa leadership," Yefremov said. "We agreed on consolidated voting," he added.
According to Interfax' information, Yefremov agreed that Alrosa would concentrate the controlling shares in Severalmaz company, which holds the licence for developing the Lomonosov mine.
Lomonosov's reserves are estimated at 12bn dollars with over half of them being diamonds suitable for jewelry.
Interfax
Source: GemKey
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