New large diamond found at ALROSA’s Verkhne-Munskoye deposit

ALROSA, the world’s largest diamond mining company, extracted a large rough diamond from the Zapolyarnaya pipe of the Verkhne-Munskoye deposit.

The gem-quality rough diamond was mined on July 9. Its weight is 63.15 carats. The crystal has an octahedral shape with small chips on the edges and tops. The mined diamond is transparent with a yellow hue.

In March, ALROSA conducted an experiment to clarify the diamondiferous nature of the northwestern part of the Zapolyarnaya pipe at the Verkhne-Munskoye deposit. In 5 days, the company extracted 239 large (over 8 carats) diamonds from the Zapolyarnaya pipe, or more than 3.5% of the number of diamonds extracted during the experiment. These figures exceed the data for other pipes of the ALROSA Group.

The first large (over 50 carats) diamonds of the Verkhne-Munskoe deposit were a 51.49-carat crystal, mined immediately after the official launch in autumn 2018, and a unique 98.8-carat diamond. Both stones were recognized as gem-quality diamonds.

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Verkhne-Munskoye diamond deposit is located in the west of Yakutia, 170 km from the town of Udachny. At present, four kimberlite pipes have been explored: Zapolyarnaya, Deimos, Novinka, and Komsomolskaya-Magnitnaya. Today it is the largest investment project of ALROSA. Investments amounted to about 16 billion rubles at the stage of preparation for the mining, and the total investment over the entire period of development is estimated at about 60 billion rubles (including maintenance investments until 2042). The Verkhne-Munskoye deposit will bring about 1.8 million carats of rough diamonds per year, and its reserves are sufficient to continue mining for more than 20 years – until 2042.

The official launch of the Verkhne-Munskoye diamond deposit was held on October 31, 2018 in the format of a call-in show with the participation of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and First Deputy Prime Minister –