Alrosa Plans to Dominate Colored-Diamond Market

RAPAPORT... Alrosa is planning to become the world's largest producer ofpolished colored diamonds, with the entire mine-to-customer process handledin-house. "We think we will be able to integrate into this segment andeven dominate it," a company spokesperson told Rapaport News Sunday. "AsAlrosa is the largest diamond miner, it is reasonable to expect today [that] weare the largest miner of colored rough diamonds as well." While polishing is currently only a small part of itsbusiness, the Russia-based miner launched this division several years ago. Lastyear, the company began focusing intensively on cutting unusual diamonds. "We have enough experience to work with colored stones," thespokesperson added. "We have a very strong cutting division, rich traditionsand unique masters who still remember what a real Russian cut is." Alrosa is currently working on cutting and polishing a largeassortment of colored diamonds from its mines, including yellow,turquoise, purple and pink stones. The miner will debut the collection inSeptember at the Hong Kong Gem & Jewellery Fair, after which the stoneswill go up for auction. One of Alrosa's most prominent colored diamonds is a27.85-carat pink stone (pictured), which it recovered last year. Thenearly inclusion-free gem is the largest pink the company has ever found, andis expected to fetch approximately $500,000 per carat at auction. It is themost expensive rough in the history of Russian diamond mining, Alrosa claims. The company is cutting and polishing the pinkdiamond through its Diamonds Alrosa enterprise, with the assistance of aninternational consultant. The stone will not be finished in time for theupcoming September auction, but will be sold at a later tender. One potential advantage Alrosa sees is that the polished stone's origin is completely transparent. "The buyer knows for sure that this stone has a cleanhistory, because it was mined in Russia and never passed [to a third party],"the spokesperson noted.