Alrosa Nearing Inventory Deal with Govt.

(diamonds.net) - Alrosa expects to finalize a sale of rough to Gokhran in the next two months, aiming to reduce its stockpiles while ensuring the diamond industry doesn’t receive a flood of goods. Gokhran — Russia’s state gem and precious-metal depository — will store the diamonds until the market stabilizes, Alrosa deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev said Monday. The parties are currently negotiating the sale terms. “It will be very important for our industry, because [it] will also provide the confidence to [the] midstream that [excesses of diamond stocks will be] limited,” the executive told Rapaport News. “The government will not try to sell these goods in [the] short term.” Gokhran often buys from Alrosa to help it during downturns, mostly notably in 2009, when it purchased an estimated $1 billion worth of inventory. Last year, the governor of Yakutia, which owns Alrosa shares, proposed that the miner sell $500 million to $1 billion of goods to the state. The current talks are about a transaction in that range, Agureev confirmed.