This year’s honorees include a Midwest retailer and two multi-store independents, one in New York and the other in New England.
Operations commence at Alrosa’s Udachny mine
Russian diamond mining company Alrosa has begun operations at its Udachny mine, and said it expects it to become one of the largest underground diamond mines in Russia and worldwide, eventually providing more than 5 million carats of diamonds per year.
Moscow--Russian diamond mining company Alrosa has begun operations at its Udachny mine, and said it expects it to become one of the largest underground diamond mines in Russia and worldwide, eventually providing more than 5 million carats of diamonds per year.
Alrosa said the Udachny mine, located in the Republic of Yakutia in northeast Russia, is expected to reach its design capacity of 4 million tons of ore per year by 2019.
Commercial production is slated to begin in 2015, reaching 2.4 to 3 million tons of ore per year by 2016.
Alrosa said once design capacity is reached, the Udachny mine will realize more than 5 million carats of diamonds per year. It is the largest underground mine the company operates, in addition to the Mir mine with the design capacity of 1 million tons of ore per year and the International and Aikhal mines at 500,000 tons of ore per year.
RELATED CONTENT: Alrosa reports 43 percent increase in Q1 sales
“An ambitious program for the construction of underground mines is an integral part of Alrosa’s development strategy aiming to keep its world’s leading position in terms of rough diamond mining,” Alrosa CEO Fyodor Andreev said. “Launch of the Udachny underground mine will allow the company to maintain stable volumes of diamond production in western Yakutia for many years.”
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