Alrosa diamond sales drop in October, but outlook remains positive

Russia’s Alrosa (MCX:ALRS), the world's top diamond producer by output in carats, said Tuesday that sales of rough gems dropped slightly in October, when compared to the previous month, though polished diamond sales remained unchanged.

Rough gems sales totalled $430.8 million in October, slightly less than the $435 million fetched in September, Alrosa said. Polished diamond sales came to $8.2 million.

The company, which together with De Beers controls almost two-thirds of the diamond market, said earlier it intends to recover 1.7 million carats of diamonds a year from its Verkhne-Munskoye mine, which is slated to begin production in 2018.

The construction of that mine, which has 38.3 million carats of booked reserves, is part of a long-term development program that aims to increase Alrosa’s diamond production to 41 million carats by 2021.

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