(finanz.ru) - Diamond mining company ALROSA has no plans to diversify its activities and start developing deposits of precious metals and other minerals, Yuri Trutnev, Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District told reporters.“ALROSA is a joint stock company, there are shareholders, there is executive management, they still believe that they do not need to do this (to diversify production – TASS’ note). I do not plan to insist on this yet,” he said.
Earlier, Trutnev, following a meeting on the socio-economic development of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), instructed the Ministry of Finance, together with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the authorities of Yakutia and the management of ALROSA, to prepare and submit proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers that would permit to diversify the company's activities. As the spokesperson of Trutnev explained, the talk was about the possibility to develop deposits of precious metals and other minerals, such as gold or lithium, in order to diversify the risks associated with the situation in the diamond market.
TASS was then told by the company that they would analyze the feasibility of extracting other minerals.
ALROSA is one of the three largest diamond mining companies in the world, with a share in global diamond output reaching 25%. Another 6% is added by Angola’s Catoca, in which ALROSA has a stake of 41%. In Russia, the company is operating in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Arkhangelsk Province. Its shareholders include the Russian Federation represented by the Federal Property Management Agency (33.02%), Yakutia - 25% and its uluses (districts) - 8%, while almost 34% of the miner’s stock is in free float.
