Mining giant Rio Tinto has announced its plans for its new diamond project in India, and they are ambitious. Business Standard reports that the firm intends to produce up to three million carats of rough diamonds a year at its Bunder project, located in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh. Rio has estimated the life of the mine to be a quarter-century and its total yield to be 27.4 million carats of rough diamonds from 37 million metric tons of kimberlite.

Rio plans to inject half a billion dollars into the project, which would make it one of the world's most intensive diamond mining project. At this point, Rio has the reconnaissance and prospecting phases under its belt, and it has secured a letter of intent from the Indian government, but for its mining plans to be granted approval, it still requires the go-ahead from environmental protection officials. Key concerns of ecologists are monkey and tiger populations close by.

Rio Tinto India managing director Nik Senapati predicted that construction on the project could commence in 2017 and that the first crop of rough diamonds could be ready two years later, according to the Business Standard.