MOSCOW, November 7. /TASS/. Global diamond reserves exceed 2 billion carats with about half of them - around 1 billion carats - located in Russia, Pavel Petrov, a senior consultant at S+Consulting, told TASS.
According to Petrov, Botswana with 631 million carats rates second, Angola with 579 million carats third and Canada with 235 million carats fourth.
Maxim Shaposhnikov, an adviser to the managing director of the Industrial Code fund, said that there is no scientifically grounded assessment of the reserves of blue diamonds in Russia and the world. They account for less than 0.02% of the total volume of finds, and the main modern source of such stones of type IIb is the South African Cullinan mine.
Shaposhnikov also said that, at the current mining rate of about 30 million carats per year, the country’s static reserve amounts to about 25 years. As the most accessible kimberlite pipes are depleted, the prices of minerals will rise, which will help increase the reserves from the resources.
Diamond mining company Alrosa produced a blue diamond of gem-quality for the first time in Russia. The unique crystal, weighing 2.74 carats, was mined at the Nakyn kimberlite field in Yakutia. The diamond’s presentation is scheduled for the end of November 2026.