Russian diamond producer Alrosa this week sold 92 rough diamonds of a special size (more than 10.8 carats) weighing 1,570 carats in total at an auction in Israel, the company said in a press release. It was Alrosa’s first auction of 2019. The total sales revenue was $9.6 million.
Alrosa is a group of Russian diamond mining companies that specialize in exploration, mining, manufacture, and sale of diamonds. The company leads the world in diamond mining by volume. Its mining takes place in Western Yakutia, the Arkhangelsk region, and Africa. Alrosa’s business accounts for 95% of the country’s diamond production and 27% of the global diamond extraction.
Companies from Israel, Russia, Hong Kong, Belgium, India, the United Arab Emirates and the United States participated in the auction.
“The auction in Israel is the first one on our schedule, and we are satisfied with its results,” Evgeny Agureev, an Alrosa senior officer, said in a statement.
“We also continue to analyze the situation in the global diamond market and see some difficulties with demand,” he said, noting, “However, in the next two months we expect it to recover.”
In 2018, Alrosa held six auctions for special size rough diamonds in Israel, and the revenue for the year reached almost $90 million.