Alrosa aims to mine 39 mln carats in 2016, expects market upturn in H2
MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - Alrosa expects to increase diamond production next year, the Russian diamond miner's president, Andrei Zharkov said in an interview with the company's media outlet.
"The draft budget that we have now formulated - though it hasn't been considered by the management board yet, we plan to do this at the end of this week in Udachny and then it still has to be conformed by the supervisory board - but nonetheless production volumes remain in line with the targets factored into the company's long-term development program, in other words about 39 million carats," Zharkov said.
"We expect that the situation on the rough and cut diamond market should stabilize next year. And in general, we expect that there might be an improvement in the second half of the year," Zharkov said.
He confirmed the previously announced forecast for this year.
"All of our operating indicators have been met 100% according to the plan. This year we plan to mine more than 38 million carats. Yes, unfortunately, we could not sell this whole amount of mined rough on the market, so part of it will go into our inventory. But these are liquid inventories that can be instantly turned into revenue if the situation on the market improves," Zharkov said.