Alrosa Renewing Diamond Sales

Russian diamond miner Alrosa will resume rough diamond sales this month, according to President Sergey Vybornov. Alrosa, which holds a monopoly on exporting Russia’s diamonds, stopped selling diamonds to its clients due to the economic crisis. Instead, the mined goods were sold to the state repository Gokhran.

Vybornov said Alrosa had already signed contracts with five companies on diamond sales worth some $300 million by the end of the year, according to RIA Novosti.

In April, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), which represents Belgium’s diamond industry, announced that it brokered a $500 million rough diamond supply to fifteen Antwerp based diamond companies.

The sentiment among many in the diamond industry is that the worst already behind happened, and slow replenishing of rough diamond stocks is in order.