RUSSIAN DIAMONDS FOR ARMENIA
Mining Journal Online, UK
Aug 9 2007
The government of Armenia has secured a supply of rough diamonds
from Russia for the country`s cutting and polishing plants. Under
the agreement, Alrosa will provide Armenian companies with part of
its rough-diamond production that is not economically viable to be
cut in Russia.
The agreement was signed during a visit to Yerevan this week by
Alrosa`s president Sergey Vybornov, who met with Armenia`s president
Robert Kocharyan and prime minister Serzh Sargsyan. Armenia`s minister
of trade and economic development, Nerses Yeritsyan, explained that
the agreement will allow for renewed diamond-cutting activities,
and that, longer term, Alrosa would extend the co-operation to the
jewellery sector.
In the recently published `From Mine to Mistress` book, Chaim
Even-Zohar notes that planned (but unattainable) polished exports for
2006 from Armenia were US$400 million. In actuality they only reached
US$245 million, which still represents over 30% of the nation`s
overall exports. This dependency on diamonds led the International
Monetary Fund to warn of a "serious threat to Armenia`s overall
export performance".
Diamond sales by Alrosa to Armenia is not a new development; Alrosa
has previously been committed to sell the country 450,000 ct/y of
gem-quality rough, supposedly at `attractive` prices. However, as Mr
Even-Zohar notes, Russia has previously reneged on that undertaking.
In 2005, Armenia processed some 800,000 ct of rough, of which only
180,000 ct were supplied by Alrosa.
The most important foreign diamond investors that are operating
in Armenia include Lev Leviev (Israel), Tache (Belgium), Rosy Blue
(Belgium) and Arslanian Brothers (Belgium).