The government building of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in Yakutsk Image credit: 2gis.ru
The head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev said in an interview with RIA Novosti on Tuesday that ALROSA should be more actively engaged in geological exploration and that it is necessary to study options for diversifying its activities.
During the interview, RIA Novosti correspondent Darya Urayeva recalled the recommendation given to ALROSA last summer by Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev to consider diversification into developing metal deposits.
Aisen Nikolaev, noting that there were no large diamond deposits found in Russia or in the whole world during the last quarter of this century and that now work is underway only to bring previously explored deposits into commercial turnover all over the world, said that, as he believes, ALROSA in any case "should be more actively engaged in geological exploration to find new diamond deposits both in this country and abroad."
“Secondly, of course, a certain direction for diversification should be studied, but since this company is a mining enterprise, we believe that diversification should after all move towards the mining industry,” he continued, saying that currently Yakutia is already developing approaches to such projects in team with ALROSA.
As an example, the head of Yakutia mentioned Almazy Anabara, a subsidiary of ALROSA, which, according to him, has already started diversification through the implementation of small gold mining projects, annually producing several hundred kilograms of this precious metal.
Vladimir Malakhov, Rough&Polished
