Russian diamond miner Alrosa plans to suspend production at several of its smaller deposits to save money during the market downturn.
From April 1, the company will stop output at its alluvial mines in the Anabar River Valley, which include the Khara-Mas and Ochuos deposits, operated by Alrosa’s subsidiary Almazy Anabara, it said Tuesday. Starting June 15, mining operations at the Verkhne Munskoye site, which houses the Zapolyarny and Magnitny open pits, will temporarily cease. Combined production at those sites was planned to be less than 1 million carats this year, accounting for 3% of the company’s total output for 2025.
Alrosa made the decision as part of a plan to improve efficiency and optimize costs, it explained. Shutting the assets for the time being will reduce the miner’s costs for the year by RUB 9 billion ($108.7 million).
The miner will run the closed sites in “hot conservation” mode, meaning that the company will continue to maintain the infrastructure of the deposits to enable a swift restart of operations once the global diamond market recovers, it said. While the suspension might impact Alrosa’s 2026 performance, it will not affect this year’s production, which remains unchanged at 29 million carats, the company added.
Separately, the miner will hold its annual auction for diamonds from its Alrosa Diamond Exclusive collection on Wednesday. The sale will include several dozen high-quality 3- to 10-carat diamonds and a selection of fancy-color stones, Alrosa said. The highlight of that auction is a round, 10-carat, triple Ex polished diamond with an estimate of more than RUB 50 million ($603,339). In total, Alrosa expects the sale to bring in about RUB 1 billion ($12.1 million).
Image: Rough diamonds. (Alrosa)
