Russia’s leading diamond producer Alrosa has announced plans to launch trial mining at its new Luaxe diamond deposit in Angola in mid-2020.
Next year, the diamond producer could report an output of 1 million carats of diamond worth some $90 million, senior company representatives told Reuters.
“It will be one of the largest deposits in the world,” said Vladimir Marchenko, the deputy chief executive of Alrosa responsible for the company’s operations in Africa.
Alrosa says is the world’s leading diamond mining company in terms of mined carats, with a 26% stake in global diamond production, and a share of about 90% in Russia’s total diamond output. In 2018, the business produced 36.7 million carats of rough diamonds, and reported sales revenues of some $4.5 billion, according to data released by Alrosa.
The Russian company is currently involved in diamond projects in three African countries: Angola, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.