UPDATE: Russia’s uncut diamond miner ALROSA boosts sales 33.7% in 2016

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MOSCOW, Jan 20 (PRIME) -- Russian uncut diamond mining giant ALROSA increased sales by 33.7% in 2016 to 40.1 million carats from 30 million carats in 2015, the company said in a statement on Friday.

In monetary terms, sales rose by 27.3% to U.S. $4.375 billion in 2016. Output declined by 2.9% to 37.2 million carats in the period.

“Demand for diamonds was higher in 2016 than in 2015 due to lower sales of major uncut diamond producers in July-December 2016,” as quoted in the statement.

The company projects to produce 39.2 million carats of diamonds in 2017, 39.9 million carats in 2018, and 41.3 million in 2021.

Capital costs amounted to 39 million rubles in 2016, and are planned at 32 billion rubles in 2017.

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