ALROSA Receives First Diamonds From Verkhne-Munskoe Deposit

(IDEX Online) – ALROSA's Udachny Mining and Processing Division completed the removal last month of 75 tons of diamondiferous ore from Verkhnyaya Muna for the trial processing at Processing Plant No. 12 and recovered the first diamonds from the Verkhne-Munskoe deposit, the miner reported.

The development of processing technology is required to prepare for the commercial launch of the deposit scheduled for later this year.

The removal of trial batches of ore from Verkhnyaya Muna began in October and ended on December 23. Ore entered the processing plant to test the processing technology and confirm the content of diamonds. The trial processing was in regular mode, and the final recovery shop received the first diamonds on December 25.

In trial processing, specialists from ALROSA and design institutes performed ore sampling, determined the degree of load on various processing chain sections and performance modes of the equipment. At the same time, the degree of diamonds damage rate at processing of this type of ore was tested. For this purpose, a technology experiment was conducted using rough diamonds with special color coating in the operation of mills, and recovering these diamonds at the final recovery shop.The marked crystals will be sent later to IrgiredmetInstitute where minerologists will determine their integrity, damagetypes, and based on this background will draft a report with recommendations for increasing rough diamonds integrity.

"Even now we can say that no additional reagents or water will be required for the processing of new ore. In general, crystals from Muna differ from rough diamonds from Zarnitsa or Udachnaya in form and color. Rough diamonds from Udachnaya are sharp-edged, and those from Muna are more rounded with lemon and brown ones among them. When rough diamonds arrive at the Diamond Sorting Center, we will get a more detailed report. In March, we will also receive a report and recommendations for work with the ore from Verkhne-Munskoe field prepared for us by Yakutniproalmaz Institute, said Alexander Makhrachev, Director of Udachny Mining and Processing Division.

The next batch of ore from Verkhne-Munskoedeposit, 250 tons of ore and 50 tons of diamond-bearing sands, will arrive at the Processing Plant No. 12 in the fourth quarter of 2018 as part of commercial development of the deposit.