The Verkhne-Munskoye deposit in the west of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is located 130 kilometers from an integrated mining and processing plant affiliated with Alrosa.
It will take at least 25 years to exhaust the mine, producing 1.2-2 million metric tons of diamond ore annually, and deeper prospecting could reveal larger reserves.
The certificate issued by the license-issuing regulator, the Federal Agency for the Management of Mineral Resources, entitles Alrosa, as a future license holder, to develop the deposit without the requirement of going to tender. The licensing procedure is underway.
Alrosa, which accounts for 97% of Russia's raw diamond production and for 25% of global output, saw its net profits go up 3.2% in 2006, to 15.6 billion rubles ($599 million). The state-owned company and its subsidiary Nyurba produced $2.3 billion worth of diamonds, surpassing the target level by 2.4%.
Russia's federal government, the largest single owner of Alrosa, is set to increase its current 37% stake in the world's second-largest producer of rough diamonds to a controlling interest.
The government of Sakha (Yakutia), the Russian Far Eastern republic where most of the company's operations are based, owns 32%, with 8% belonging to Yakutia's provinces, and the remaining 23% is held by company employees.
