Alrosa’s Executive Committee led by the Company’s President Andrey Zharkov took stock of the results of the Group's geological exploration in 2015, at its meeting held on February 26 in Aikhal, the Company announced.

The major portion of geological exploration was carried out in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).  Specifically, in 2015, the reserves of Mayskoe deposit, pipes Dalnyaya, Nyurbinskaya and Botuobinskaya were calculated and approved,  the Company stated.  The company’s geologists carried out exploration at the Verkhne-Munskoe deposit, the Zarya pipe and in the deep layers of the Internatsionalnaya pipe. Geological exploration was also completed on Pionerskaya and Pomorskaya pipes in the Arkhangelsk region (PJSC Severalmaz).

“Following the results of 2015, geologic exploration allowed the reserves in categories С1+С2 to go 43.57 million carats up,” the Company revealed. “Thus, at the beginning of 2016 total reserves of Alrosa Group by the Russian State classification standards amounted to 1.108 billion carats.”

The Alrosa Group spent a total of RUB 6.3 billion --  with the major portion  (about  RUB 6.1 billion) allocated to the operations in Yakutia – on its exploration activity  in 2015.

Apart from its home territory, various joint ventures of Alrosa also conducted  prospecting and geological  exploration in Africa. “Following an integrated research in Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe, the promising areas for prospecting of diamond deposits were allocated, the major fields of geological exploration were identified, and the operating procedures were developed,” Alrosa said.

 Andrey Zharkov declared  in his address that  in 2016-2017 the Alrosa Group will increase   investments in prospecting and geologic exploration of diamond deposits in Yakutia, and will concentrate on the implementation of remote sensing technologies for prospecting of diamond deposits.