Just before the end of the year, the world’s top diamond producer by output, Alrosa (MCX: ALRS), unearthed a large 191-carat rough diamond at its Botuobinskaya kimberlite pipe in Yakutia, eastern Russia.
The Botuobinskaya pipe is famous for a large proportion of gem-quality and near-gem-quality transparent crystals
Even though Alrosa experts are still conducting mineralogical analyses on the stone, preliminary results suggest that the diamond is about 2 billion years old.
“This is a true sign to find such a large and high-quality diamond just around the end of the year,” Evgeny Agureev, the company’s deputy CEO, said in a media statement. “Nature has already endowed us in 2019. For example, a heart-shaped diamond was mined at the Udachnaya pipe just before Valentine’s Day. Surely, such findings are very remarkable.”
Discovered in 1994, the Botoubinskaya pipe, together with the Nyurbinskaya pipe, is operated by Alrosa’s Nyurba Mining and Processing Division. The unit, however, was established back in 2000 and mining at the deposit began in 2015.