ALROSA to Create Single Environmental Center

(IDEX Online) – ALROSA is centralizing the work of its ecologists in a new Environmental Center which will develop the company's environmental strategy.

Today, environmental issues are supervised by different specialists in the company's structural subdivisions. ALROSA said that ecology is a strategically important direction of its activity and is constantly working on improving the effectiveness of its environmental programs. One of the steps in this direction will be the centralization of environmental service.

"The ALROSA Environmental Center will start work in February 2018. The employees responsible for the environment and environmental protection will be transferred to the new unit from all structural subdivisions. The Environmental Center will assume a wide range of functions, including expansion of the boundaries of industrial environmental control and the risk-oriented approach, introduction of a geo-information monitoring system and creation of an analytical database for the Company, unification of rules and development of unified approaches to solving problems in the field of environmental protection. The new unit will develop an environmental strategy for further integration into the overall development strategy of ALROSA."

Polina Anisimova, ALROSA Deputy Chief Engineer for Ecology, Environmental Protection and Work with Indigenous Minorities, said: "Independent experts today confirm ALROSA's high level of environmental responsibility and information openness. We are proud of the high assessment and will continue to improve the work on environmental protection. ALROSA sets ambitious missions in this area - reducing water consumption, moving to alternative sources of energy supply, reducing the mass of СО2 emissions, forming recultivation funds, standardizing processes. The creation of the Environmental Center will allow us to achieve higher target and planned environmental indicators at a new qualitative level, as well as move from "passive response" to "active anticipation", creating a personalized focus on the result."

In 2016, ALROSA allocated RUB 5.5 billion to environmental protection measures, the total expenses for these purposes for the period from 2012 to 2016 exceeded RUB 27.5 billion. In particular, in 2017, within the framework of the Year of Ecology in Russia, ALROSA implemented two large projects in Yakutia. One of them is the construction of a unit for the reinjection of open-pit and drainage waters into the Zapadny Fault. Due to the network of injection wells and a drainage system, high-mineralized water from the Internatsionalny underground mine is drained to the Metegero-Ichersky aquifer system, thus protecting the topsoil and surface water resources. The second project is the reconstruction of sewage treatment facilities in Udachny town with a capacity of 15,000 cubic meters per day.