In Angola, one of Alrosa's important markets, the company is expected to meet this month with the Government to discuss a possible exit from Sociedade Mineira de Catoca, where the Russians have a 41 percent stake, equal to that of Endiama, to which they add plus 18 percent from Endiama Mining, which kept the 18 percent expropriated last year from Leviev International Holding BV.
"Despite the long history of relations with the company, international sanctions related to the war in Russia and Ukraine have placed it at a level of toxicity that affects the sale of diamonds and also the operations of the Minas Gerais society", writes the newspaper Expansão.
It should be noted that the Russian company began to suffer sanctions from the United States of America in April 2022, shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, and the European Union, in the middle of this month, banned the purchase and export of Russian diamonds, following the example announced by the G7 at the beginning of the month.
From January 1st, the import of diamonds from Russia will continue to be banned, which receives around 4 billion euros a year from the sale of precious stones.
Despite the sanctions, the company fulfilled its production plan. Alrosa, the world's largest diamond producer, managed to fully meet its production plan this year, extracting 34.6 million carats despite Western sanctions, the company announced this Friday.
"Despite the negative context, the company fulfilled 100 percent of its diamond extraction plan, of 34.6 million carats," said the general director of Alrosa, Pável Marínichev, during a meeting with the governor of the Russian region Yakutia, according to the Spanish news agency, Efe, which cites information from the local government.
Diamond production in 2023 is "slightly below production in 2022, when 35.6 million carats were produced", added the official, stressing that for 2024 the plan is to keep all factories working at full capacity.
