The Lukoil leader for the first time visited the site of the huge diamond ore this week. He there headed a meeting in the newly established Verkhotina Ore Processing Combine, the company which will be responsible for the field development.
Meanwhile, environmentalists protest against the diamond plans. As previously reported by BarentsObserver, the development of the project is believed to lead to irreversible damage on nature. The local population fears for the worst and has sent a public letter to both President Dmitri Medvedev and the Russian State Prosecutor Yuri Chaika with warnings against the project.
Read also: Looming diamond catastrophe
Production at the field is planned to start up in late 2013, the Arkhangelsk regional administration informs. The field reserves are estimated to have a value of more than five billion USD. Almost 100 million carat of diamonds is believed to hide in the ground, which makes the field one of the biggest in all of Europe.
Read also: Diamond mining expanding in Arkhangelsk
Lukoil has for years been seeking a partner for the diamond project located about 130 km northeast of Arkhangelsk City. The company and its subsidiary Arkhangelskgeoldobycha already in 1993 established a joint venture with De Beers and its Archangel Diamond Corporation in the project. That initiative however failed and was declared all dead in 2009. Lukoil later attempted to get Russian diamond major Alrosa onboard in the project, but also that failed.
Now, the company is starting up on its own. The biggest part of the diamond resources will be extracted from an open pit
