Severalmaz JSC, a subsidiary of Russian miner Alrosa has announced the commencement of mining for ore at its Karpinskogo-1 kimberlite pipe at the Lomonosov deposit in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia.

The pipe is expected to produce 0.6 million tonnes of ore this year, which will increase to 2 million tonnes of ore per year from 2015. Large-scale ore processing is expected to start after that.

Refining and testing of small amounts of ore to approve diamond grade and adjust processing technology will be done at the end of the year.

An Alrosa release states that the Lomonosov deposit consists of 6 kimberlite pipes with 126 million tonnes of ore reserves under the JORC standards. The JORC reserves of Karpinskogo-1 pipe amounted to 31 million tonnes of ore containing more than 33 million carats of diamonds.

Severalmaz has been mining for diamonds at the Arkhangelskaya kimberlite pipe since 2005. By 2013, it’s diamond production amounted to 0.5 million carats per year. This year Severalmaz began operations at the second module of the processing plant, raising from 1 to 4 million tonnes of ore.

Alrosa states that Severalmaz's diamond production will rise to 2 million carats in 2015 and to more than 5 million carats thereafter.