ALROSA – SALES
ALROSA sold $667 million worth of cut and rough diamonds in January and February, the Russian diamond monopoly said in a statement published by Interfax. "The company notes that demand for rough diamonds is robust, enabling us to sell all of our output on the market," ALROSA stated.
After the low level of sales ALROSA suffered from in 2009, forcing it to sell the majority of its goods to the state precious metals and gemstones repository Gokhran, the company believes this year its sales to the open market will be robust, IDEX Online reports.
"We've budgeted for $870 million in diamond sales to the Gokhran this year, but we are discussing the feasibility of this with the Finance Ministry because in our estimates, we'll be able to sell everything on the market fairly successfully unless there's a second wave of crisis," ALROSA President Fyodor Andreyev told Interfax last week.
Gokhran bought approximately $1.09 billion worth of rough from ALROSA last year. ALROSA returned to the market in July, focusing on long-term contracts which it says will amount to 70 percent of the company’s overall sales in 2010.
The company told IDEX Online that it expects to increase its sales to the Indian market, which bought about half of ALROSA’s open market sales.
The company is forecasting $2.314 billion in mine output and $3.3 billion in sales revenue in 2010.

RIO TINTO – MINING PERMIT – INDIA
Mining giant Rio Tinto's prospects for getting an in-principle approval for its diamond mining project in Madhya Pradesh, India, are favorable, the Business Standard reported Sunday cited by Israelidiamond.co.il.
"The Madhya Pradesh government has already recommended mining lease to Rio Tinto's Bunder project," a senior Mines Ministry official told the paper.
Rio Tinto India Managing Director Nik Senapati added: "We are happy to hear that mining concession is at the most advanced stage. We are looking forward to getting the environment clearances among other things soon. We are excited to be working in India." After the Mines Ministry approves the recommendation from the state for granting the lease, Rio Tinto will have to obtain environmental and forest clearances from the relevant government bureaus before starting mining. Rio Tinto is planning to invest around Rs 2,200 crore in a phased manner in the project, the Ministry official said.
The Bunder project in Chhattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh has estimated reserves of 37 million ton. At 0.7 carat per ton, the project would give 27.4 million carats of diamond. A The mining project is being undertaken by the company's subsidiary Rio Tinto Diamonds and investment would be made through its domestic arm Rio Tinto Exploration India.

GOLD MINING – CHUKOTKA
According to the data provided by Department on industry policy construction and housing and utilities of Chukotka autonomous district, gold output of the region amounted to 3693.3 kg and silver production attained 34,765.7 kg for the first two months of 2010. At present three enterprises are involved in gold mining at Chukotka, Regions.ru reported.

GOLD – DYNAMICS – CHINA
Gold in New York fell to the lowest price in more than a week as the a strengthening dollar reduced demand for the metal as an alternative asset and China said bullion probably won’t be the country’s main reserve investment, Bloomberg reported.
The dollar rose as much as 0.5 percent against a basket of six major currencies, brining this year’s rally to 3.4 percent. Gold is “unlikely” to be China’s primary investment to diversify its reserve holdings because of price risks, said Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
“It’s all about the dollar,” said Leonard Kaplan, the president of Prospector Asset Management in Evanston, Illinois. “With the dollar continuing to strengthen, gold doesn’t have a chance. There isn’t enough gold for China to make it its primary reserve. They have to hold dollars.”
Gold futures for April delivery fell $1.70, or 0.2 percent, to close at $1,122.30 an ounce on the Comex in New York, after earlier dropping to $1,108.20, the lowest price since Feb. 26.
 “The size of the world’s gold market is small,” Yi said at a briefing in Beijing today. “China’s purchase will push up the prices. That will also hurt Chinese gold consumers.”
Private holdings in China are more than 3,000 metric tons, he said.
China increased its reserves of gold by 454 tons to 1,054 tons since 2003 and has the world’s fifth-biggest holding by country, the Foreign Exchange Administration said in April last year. The country is the world’s largest producer of the precious metal and the second-biggest consumer after India.
“This may have a short-term negative impact on gold prices as one of the key reasons for the rally in the past year has been the expectation of central banks buying,” said Li Ning, an analyst at China International Futures (Shanghai) Co.

Rough&Polished