OREANDA-NEWS. At its meeting held on February 26 in Aikhal, ALROSA’s Executive Committee led by the Company’s President Andrey Zharkov summarized the results of the Group's geologic exploration in 2015.

The bulk of geologic exploration was carried out in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). In particular, in 2015 the reserves of Mayskoe deposit, pipes Dalnyaya, Nyurbinskaya and Botuobinskaya were calculated and approved. The company’s geologists carried out exploration at Verkhne-Munskoe deposit, Zarya pipe and deep layers of Internatsionalnaya pipe. Geologic exploration was completed on Pionerskaya and Pomorskaya pipes in the Arkhangelsk region (PJSC Severalmaz).

Following the results of 2015, geologic exploration allowed the reserves in categories С1+С2 to go 43.57 million carats up. Thus, at the beginning of 2016 total reserves of ALROSA Group by the Russian State classification standards amounted to 1.108 billion carats.

Total financing of geologic exploration by ALROSA Group in 2015 amounted to RUB 6.3 billion, with the major part thereof (some RUB 6.1 billion) allocated to the operations in Yakutia.

ALROSA also proceeded with prospecting and geologic exploration in Africa in the scope of its joint ventures. Following an integrated research in Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe, the promising areas for prospecting of diamond deposits were allocated, the major fields of geological exploration were identified, and the operating procedures were developed.

As Andrey Zharkov noted in his address, in 2016-2017 ALROSA Group will proceed with increasing the investments in prospecting and geologic exploration of diamond deposits in Yakutia, and will concentrate on the implementation of remote sensing technologies for prospecting of diamond deposits.