Alrosa considers going underground at Jubilee

Russian miner Alrosa’s investment committee has approved financing for preliminary engineering studies at the Jubilee diamond mine, to provide up-to-date information to decide on the construction of an underground mine.

The Jubilee pipe of the Aikhal division is currently being mined by openpit methods.

In 2019, the company considered technical specifications and decided to start preliminary works to set the stage for design and engineering of the prospective underground mine to extract reserves from deeper horizons of the pipe (from -100 m to -680 m levels).

The approved complex of studies include preparation of engineering surveys and feasibility studies for the underground mine and infrastructure. The financing for this phase is budgeted at around ?, 1/2 63-million.

At a pit depth of 480 m, Jubilee has a mining capacity of 5.2-million tonnes a year.

According to the current production plan, it will operate until 2034 with a pit deepening to 720 m (corresponds to -100 m mark).

The company expects to get the feasibility study for the Jubilee underground mine construction, as well as updated resources and reserves, in 2022.

A final decision on the project implementation will be based on these documents.