Alrosa: We Won’t Publish Diamond Data

Alrosa, the world’s second largest diamond miner, said it has no plans to publish information on its production or sales in carats, or provide information on its diamond reserves, even though President Vladimir Putin recently granted it permission to do so.

Alrosa produces a quarter of the world’s diamonds in value.

According to a report in Reuters quoting an aide to Alrosa president Alexander Nichiporuk, “Alrosa has no plans to publish information on reserves as well as on production and sales in carats.”

The aide, Andrei Gusenkov, added that, “It's possible that we would provide this data to certain investors within the framework of certain projects, but at the moment there is no need for that.”

Russian President Putin's decision to allow the data to be revealed came after public pressure to bring Russia into full compliance with the Kimberley Process.

Last December, the Russian Finance Ministry published quarterly data from the first quarter of 2003 until the third quarter of 2004. According to those figures during the first six months of 2004 the country produced 17,763,000 carats, worth $948 million.

This year, Alrosa plans to produce $2.185 billion worth of rough diamonds.