To all:
Here is some background on the Russian situation. Diamonds may be their salvation yet, if they don't panic.
Udachny Diamond
Mine, the biggest in
Russia is located just
south of the Arctic
circle. The struggle for
control over Yakutia's
diamonds had until
recently been between
local diamond cartel
(ARS, or
Almazy-Rossii-Sakha,
which mines 80 percent
of Russia's diamonds)
and greedy ministers in
Moscow. Moscow was
illegally dumping
millions of dollars in
diamonds on the world
market to pay for
government costs like
re-electing Boris Yeltsin
in 1996.
After months of
uncertainty about
Russia's role in the
world diamond market, a
formal deal was finally
clinched last October
with South African
company DeBeers, the
world's leading diamond
producer. Yakutians
who work in sub-zero
conditions scratching
diamonds from frozen
mines in the coldest
inhabited place on earth
hope the deal will mean
some money will trickle
down locally. However,
Moscow has always
found a way in the past
to siphen its share.
And:
The Lomonosov
deposit, the only
diamond deposit on the
European continent,
was discovered only in
1980. It has the
potential to produce
one-third of Russia's
total diamond output. De
Beers, the South African
diamond corporation,
has displayed
considerable interest in
financing the estimated
$700 million price tag to
extract the diamonds,
provided the company
receives a 50 percent
stake. No deal has been
struck to date.
PHIL |
