Alrosa to launch the largest underground mine on Udachnaya pipe by July

Alrosa will launch an underground mine at the Udachnaya pipe in Yakutia, which will be the fourth in the company and the largest in Russia at the end of June this year, the director of Udachninsky GOK, Alexander Makhrachev reported to journalists.

Since 1971, the Udachnaya pipe has been developed successfully by the open pit method, but in 2016, the open-pit mining stopped and only underground mine will work at the deposit. By 2019, the mine is expected to reach the production level of 4 million tons of diamantiferous ore per year.

"In the second half of 2014, the production will be concurrent, the main efforts of the company will be aimed at preparing the ore body for mining. Since 2015, the production volumes will gradually increase, we will reach 2.4-3 million tons by 2016, and projected 4 million tons of ore per year by 2019,"- said Makhrachev.

The budget of the Udachninsky GOK since the start of its construction in 2004 and till achievement of its full capacity in 2019 is about 48 billion rubles. By the time, when the mine will be constructed to a depth of 1400 meters - to the proven reserves, the total cost will make up 63 billion rubles. "During this period, we will get $21 billion from the sale of marketable products, which we will mine by the underground way," - said Makhrachev.