MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian diamond giant Alrosa will review its annual production plan after an accident at a key mine, the company said Sunday as a search went on for eight missing workers.
“A review of the company’s production parameters will be conducted by August 19… as a result of the accident,” Alrosa president Sergei Ivanov said, in remarks distributed by the company.
On Friday water broke into the Mir mine in the Sakha region some 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) east of Moscow.
A total of 142 workers were evacuated and one more was found Saturday and hospitalised, but eight are still unaccounted for.
The company said Sunday it knew the approximate location of the eight thanks to their electronic equipment, but it did not say whether they could be alive or dead.
The emergencies ministry said specialist climbers arrived at the mine shafts on Sunday.
Alrosa made a net profit of 22.7 billion rubles ($376.37 million) in the first quarter of 2017.
The Mir mine, inaugurated in 2009, produces a million tonnes of diamond ore per year.
Last year it produced 3.19 million carats of diamonds, according to the company’s website.
Experts say the mine makes up about 11 percent of Alrosa’s production.
Up to 2001, Alrosa used opencast mining at the Mir site, which has been used for diamond production since 1955.
The opencast pit is a vast crater with a diameter of over a kilometre (half a mile), making it one of the largest man-made holes on Earth.
© Agence France-Presse
