Moscow: OAO Nizhne-Lenskoye, an ALROSA subsidiary, won an auction for the license to explore and develop the diamond placers near Molodo River in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic.

OAO Nizhne-Lenskoye offered 51.776 million rubles for the licence to commence operations at the deposit. The starting price was 43.147 million rubles.

The offering is subject to the approval of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The diamond placer near Molodo river is situated close to OAO Nizhne-Lenskoye’s current operations in the region. The acquisition of the new asset is in accordance with ALROSA’s strategy and will allow the company to accumulate its resource base in Yakutia.

The Molodo deposit’s diamond reserves of categories C1 and C2 amount to 905,300 carats, with additional resource of 188,800 carats. P1 category diamond reserves are predicted at 712,600 carats.

ALROSA is the world’s leader in the diamond mining by volume. The company is engaged in the exploration, production and sale of diamonds. ALROSA’s operations are mainly conducted in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic and the Arkhangelsk Region.

ALROSA produced 36.9 million carats of rough diamonds in 2013, the company’s revenue amounted to 168.5 billion rubles in 2013.