Alrosa Restarts Operations at Zarya Mine

RAPAPORT… Alrosa has resumed production at its Zarya open-pit mine in Yakutia after closing it for more than a year.

The first ore from the site since its reopening has already gone to the processing plant, Alrosa said last week. The miner suspended operations at Zarya and the rest of its Aikhal division in May 2020 due to the heavy impact of the coronavirus pandemic on diamond demand.

Zarya has some of the lowest margins in the company because of the types of diamonds it produces, making it a good candidate for closure, the miner noted. It also closed the Aikhal underground deposit for the same reason. In the second half of 2020, the government gave its approval for Alrosa to reopen Zarya, as demand had improved.

In 2019, its first year of operations, Zarya produced 38,000 carats, while last year the site yielded 257,000 carats. In 2021, the company plans to recover over 1.2 million tonnes of ore at the site, it said.

Separately, Alrosa’s board members reelected Anton Siluanov, Russia’s minister of finance, as chairman at a June 24 meeting. Aysen Nikolaev, head of the Republic of Yakutia, was also reelected first deputy chairman, while Alrosa CEO Sergey Ivanov was once again chosen as deputy chairman.

Image: Alrosa’s Zarya deposit. (Alrosa)