The Russian federal subsurface agency Rosnedra is planning to auction off the rights to explore and mine diamonds in the northwest regions of the Sakha republic, according to the agency’s Yakutsk regional division. The auctions will be conducted on December 28, 2010.

The auction will be organized to distribute licenses for exploration sites in the vicinity of the Ebelyakh river, the Gusiny stream, and the Dalnaya pipeline.

Parties that intend to place their bids in the auction had to submit documents for participating in the auction by December 10, 2010.

According to geologists, B reserves at Ebelyakh are 2.425 million carats. C1 reserves are 13.663 million carats, and C2 reserves that would be recoverable with the technique of dredge mining are 464 200 carats. The site also contains supplemental open-pit B reserves of 10.464 million carats. C1 reserves for open-pit mining are 6.294 million carats, and C2 reserve are 816 600 carats. Off-balance C1+C2 reserves (for dredging) total 1.646 billion carats. Open-pit mining off-balance reserves are 1.259 million carats.  

B reserves at Gusiny are estimated at 1.139 million carats. C1 reserves at the deposit are 2.267 million carats, and C2 reserves are 1 800 carats. 

The deposit at Dalnaya is thought to contain B1 reserves of 651 000 carats, C1 reserves of 7.811 million carats, as well as C2 reserves of 2.25 million carats.

Altogether, diamond production in Russia in 2009 was 34.759 million carats, a figure 5.9 percent smaller than the results for 2008. Alrosa’s production accounted for 97 percent of diamond extraction in the country.