OREANDA-NEWS. Russia’s largest diamond miner ALROSA officially launched the Botuobinskaya kimberlite pipe into production on March 10, 2015, the first new pipe launch in Yakutia in ten years. In 2015, Botuobinskaya is expected to produce 230,000 tons of ore and about 1 million carats of rough. The long-term production plan for the pipe sets the annual target at more than 2 million carats when the deposit reaches its design capacity of 400,000 tons of ore per year.

The identified reserves of Botuobinskaya were assessed at 13.679 million tons of ore containing 71.044 million carats of rough diamonds, with an average 5.65 diamond carats per ton under Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) standards. The reserves contain a fairly large proportion of gem-quality and near-gem-quality crystals, with a high degree of transparency. This makes Botuobinskaya one of the richest pipes on ALROSA’s roster, outflanked only by the miner’s prized International pipe, which boasts an average diamond grade of over 8 carats per ton.

The open pit production is operated by the company’s Nyurba Mining and Processing Division (MPD), which was established in 2000 to develop the Nakyn ore field in Yakutia’s Nyurba province. The Nakyn ore field comprises the Nyurbinskaya pipe, which has been ALROSA’s main production site in Nyurba over the past 15 years, and the Botuobinskaya and Mayskaya pipes, as well as the Nyurbinskaya and Botuobinskaya diamond placers. In 2014, the Nyurba MPD, which accounted for 20 percent of ALROSA’s overall production with just one pipe in operation, was outperformed only by the company’s Aikhal division, which operates three pipes that produced 35 percent of the company’s 2014 output.

The first rock blast at Botuobinskaya occured on December 24, 2012, and regular stripping operations were performed throughout 2013 until December 31, 2014. Over these two years, almost \$50 million was spent removing 406 million cubic feet of waste rock to build a pit measuring almost 300 feet deep and approximately 3,000 feet across. The long-term plan for Botuobinskaya is to continue open pit production until a depth of 1,900 feet is reached, tentatively set for 2039.