The executive board of Alrosa, Russia's state-owned diamond producer, has mapped out and approved a program of diamond exploration through 2018.

The program is designed to ramp up the company's large-scale and medium-scale exploration activity. Diamond exploration will be carried out in Nyruba, Aikhal, and Mirny in the West Yakutia region of Siberia as well as in the Arkhangelsk region of northwestern Russia, with the goal of increasing the amount of Alrosa's diamond resources to over 430 million carats.

Alrosa's previous program of mineral replenishment increased the company's mineral resource by some 70%.

The executive committee was also apprised of the construction progress at the Lomonosovsky diamond mining and processing subdivision, and relevant units were instructed to ensure implementation of plans to have the project's second production facility built and running by the second half of 2013.