Alrosa to Launch Extensive Exploration Program

Alrosa will launch an “extensive” exploration program in Russia and abroad, the diamond miner’s president Alexander Nichiporuk said today. The international sites Alrosa is targeting include Angola and Canada.

According to Nichiporuk, Alrosa is negotiating the acquisition of rights to five Angolan properties, where exploration has already taken place and where 10 to 15 kimberlite pipes have been studied.

An Alrosa delegation will visit Canada next week. The Russian diamond miner is starting to explore a 26,000 square kilolmeter property where kimberlite pipes have already been discovered.

Local exploration efforts will focus in Russia’s Northwest, Nichiporuk added. Alrosa holds the rights to eight properties in the region and may join forces with “one of the world's biggest diamond companies” to develop them, Interfax quoted him as saying.