ALROSA President Andrey Zharkov told a meeting of the company that diamond mining by the firm in 2016 may fall within a range of 37 million to 39 million carats.
Zharkov said that volumes of diamonds mined will depend on the global demand for rough goods.
He stressed that a possible cutback in diamond mining operations will have no impact on employee numbers, and company management has no plans to reduce working hours.
Reduction in diamond mining will be achieved through the implementation of the employees’ leave schedule, he explained.
“Despite the fact that the first quarter of this year was rather positive, and the demand for rough diamonds exceeded the planned target, we are rather conservative as regards the whole year 2016, and we consider one of the key priorities for our sales is not to accumulate stocks.
"To react to the market conditions adequately, we are considering the diamond mining scenario for 2016 within the range from 37 million to 39 million carats," Zharkov commented.
