Alrosa to build new mine at Mir at cost of 126 bln rubles - Yakutia leader

YAKUTSK. Nov 25 (Interfax) - The project to restore the Mir diamond pipe involves building a new underground mine at a cost of 126 billion rubles, the leader of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolayev said at a meeting on the region's socioeconomic development.

"There are plans to put 126 billion rubles of investment into the Mir-Gluboky project. An absolutely new mine will be built to replace the one lost in 2017," Nikolayev said, adding that the project will create 825 jobs.

The meeting was attended by Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, to which Nikolayev proposed signing an investment protection and promotion agreement (IPPA) for the mine.

"The project meets all requirements of an IPPA. Perhaps we'll sign with the participation of the Russian Federation, as a private project initiative? We propose to sign an IPPA to reduce the risks of the lengthy investment period for the 20-year duration of the project's implementation," Nikolayev said.

At the beginning of 2022, Alrosa estimated the cost of restoring the Mir mine at $1.2 billion-$1.5 billion and said construction would take six to nine years. In 2019, the first tentative estimates put the cost of the project at 73 billion rubles.

The Mir underground mine was flooded in August 2017, when water from the spent open-pit mine above it broke through. The ore of the Mir deposit has a high content of high quality diamonds, and before the flood the mine accounted for more than 10% of the Alrosa Group's production.