Alrosa Unit Completes Acquisition of Alluvial Miner For $217 M

Alrosa subsidiary Almazy Anabara has completed the purchase of alluvial diamond miner Nizhne-Lenskoe for close to $217 million. The deal was financed by the issue of new short-term debt.

Almazy Anabara, which is 100-percent owned by Alrosa, bought a 51-percent stake in Nizhne-Lenskoe for $113.6 million last January, and has now bought the rest of the company.

Nizhne-Lenskoe operations are located in the northwest of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the Far East of Russia where many of Alrosa’s mines are located.

The Nizhne-Lenskoe facilities are also situated near Almazy Anabara’s facilities.

Nizhne-Lenskoe owns a number of alluvial deposits, and its rough diamonds reportedly have an average price per carat of $100-$180.

The firm’s production in 2012 totaled 1.5 million carats. It had revenues of about $145 million last year.