Sergey Ivanov, President of Russian mining giant Alrosa, said at a conference call, quoted by Rough & Polished, that “there is a high probability that Alrosa’s output will be lower in 2018 than in 2017”, following the accident at the Mir mine on August 4.
Ivanov further claimed that the decrease might be “slight”, and that he does not expect “a decline in sales in 2018 given that the company’s current diamond reserves are 14.4 million carats”. In 2017, Alrosa has not changed its target diamond output of 39.2 million carats.
Last week, Alrosa issued its financial performance reports for the first half of 2017. Alrosa’s revenue fell 3.6% to $2.7 billion year-on-year. Net profit fell 66.2% to $836.4 million.
According to the company, the drop in revenue was driven by “market and macroeconomic factors such as the 18% ruble appreciation against the US dollar and a 15% drop in the average price of the diamonds sold as a result of changes in the diamond mix”.
