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Alrosa rough diamond sales in 2019 could exceed projected 38 mln carats

The company said earlier in a press release, sales of diamonds by Alrosa Group increased by 13% year-on-year in November to $274 mln

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Rough diamond sales by Alrosa in 2019 could exceed the projected production of 38 mln carats and reach 38-39 mln carats, Head of the company Sergey Ivanov told reporters on Thursday.

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"We will approve the next year’s budget tomorrow at the supervisory board meeting. We proceed from the assumption that we will be able to sell anyway more than we will get next year. Everything will depend on the market conditions. We will see, I believe that production will reach 38 mln catars, sales - more than 38 mln carats," he said.

"Theoretically, we will be able to sell 41 mln carats, but I don’t think that this year we will reach more than 37 mln carats. We do not expect any strong additional demand to appear next year, but we can well set a benchmark of 38-39 mln carats," Ivanov added.

The company said earlier in a press release, sales of diamonds by Alrosa Group increased by 13% year-on-year in November to $274 mln. In particular, rough diamond sales in terms of value amounted to $266.6 mln, polished diamond sales -$7.4 mln, the company said. In January-November, Alrosa’s total diamond sales grew 3.7% year-on-year and amounted to $4.2 bln. Rough diamonds were sold for $4.1 bln, polished diamonds - for $90.4 mln.

Alrosa is a group of Russian diamond producers. The Group is the largest diamond producer in the world. It mines diamonds on the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Arkhangelsk region.

The largest shareholders of Alrosa are the Russian Federation (33.02%), the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) - 25%, uluses (districts) of Yakutia - 8%, and 34% of the company’s shares are in free float.

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