Alrosa starts mining at new 1.8m ct/y deposit

Russian diamond miner Alrosa has marked the official start of diamond mining operations at the Verkhne-Munskoye diamond field, which will produce about 1.8-million carats a year for the next 20 years, replacing capacity from the flooded Mir mine.

Verkhne-Munskoye will be using the processing plant of the Udachny mining and processing division, which is about 170 km away. Alrosa has constructed a service lane to connect Verkhne-Munskoye to Udachny.