Sales of rough and polished diamonds by Russia's government-owned producer Alrosa topped $1.839 billion from January-May 2011, the company announced Tuesday at a working meeting.



Alrosa's expects diamond sales for Q2 2011 to exceed $1.247 billion; and said that if diamond prices remain at current levels, its sales will comprise approximately $4.7 billion by the end of the year.



The company plans to use the inflow of revenue to pay down its debt.



At the end of May, Alrosa's executive board mapped out and approved a program of diamond exploration through 2018 that 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.