Alrosa’s Mine Life Extension to Add $1.2B to Its Coffers

Alrosa will spend RUB 20 billion ($239.8 million) to extend the life of its Udachnaya mine in Yakutia by 16 years.

The project, which will take the deposit from its current end date of 2039 until at least 2055, will run for the next 15 years and will take place in parallel with regular mining operations, Alrosa said last week. Annual production from the extension will top 4 million tonnes of diamond-bearing ore.

“Implementing this investment project will allow us to significantly extend the life of the deposit, which currently produces over 10% of Russia’s diamonds,” said Pavel Marinychev, CEO of Alrosa.

In total, the company estimates profits of approximately RUB 6 billion ($71.9 million) per year from the expanded site. It has already commissioned a feasibility study and received approval to proceed with the project, it explained. Alrosa will use various technologies to help it expand the site and retrieve ore from the lower portions. These tools include artificial intelligence (AI), which can monitor the loading of mine trucks and the condition of the main conveyor that delivers ore to the surface. It also has a remote-control system for quarry breakers that can crush oversize pieces of ore, it added.

Alrosa discovered Udachnaya in 1955, with open-pit mining beginning in 1967. The pipe is one of the largest in the world, it said. The site currently employes 1,200 people.

Image: The Udachnaya mine. (Alrosa)