On December 28, 2022, a meeting of the Board of Directors of PJSC ALMAR – Arctic Diamonds was held. The main issue of the meeting was the approval of the updated production strategy of the company.
The Board of Directors reviewed and approved the updated strategy for the development of the company’s license areas, taking into account the changed economic conditions, the results of exploration work in the 2021-2022 season and the recommendations of competent persons who evaluated the results of exploration. The strategy assumes maintaining the start-up dates of the Beenchime site in 2024 and postponing the start-up of the Khatystakh site from 2024 to 2026 in order to further study the large ore occurrence discovered during exploration at this site, which will confirm reserves and optimize the technical project. Prospecting licenses for both subsurface areas have been extended for 2 years. Obtaining a license for production and exploration at the Khatystakh site is planned for 2025, at the Beenchime site – this year. The planned service life of the production site at Beenchime for open-pit mining has been increased from 5 to 7 years. At Khatystakh, the planned service life of the first production site in an open manner will be at least 5 years.
The updated production strategy makes it possible to maintain the planned volume of investment funds necessary for the construction and launch of commercial exploitation of deposits at the level of about 3.5 billion rubles and at the same time increase production indicators. Under the chosen scenario, the design capacity of extraction and processing of diamond–bearing sands will be 700-800 thousand cubic meters per year, the volume of diamond production will be about 1.5 million carats per year, with an output to the design capacity in 2026. The start of sales of rough diamonds has not changed and is scheduled for the IV quarter of 2024. As exploration continues and the exploration of the ALMAR subsurface areas increases, the development strategy will be refined and adapted to the current economic conditions.
Also, the Board of Directors of PJSC ALMAR decided to coordinate the conclusion of an additional agreement on the extension of the non-revolving credit line with Almazergienbank until March 31, 2023. The remaining parameters remain unchanged – the total amount of the credit line is 120.5 million rubles, the rate is 16% per annum.