Siberian diamonds

Russia started to look for diamonds in their own country in the beginning of the cold war era. They couldn´t depend on other suppliers for the industry. Stalin sent out an geological expedtion to Siberia. 8 years later they found the first site. The next problem was how to set up a mine in the siberian climate. During the Soviet era they sent roughs to Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia for polishing. There is mainly one actor in todays russian diamond industry, Alrosa. They are now almost producing 25 % of the worlds rough diamonds. The 2nd largest producer in the world. Now Russia has built their own organisation for refining the rough diamonds. One of the companies is EPL Diamond group with it´s cutting factories in the heart of russias diamond territory, Yakutia. Since 1992 they have managed to train hundreds of skilled polishers. The competition from Israel, India and China is hard, but the Russians improve every day. Today with people´s awareness of the often dirty diamond business and conflict diamonds, companies like Epl diamond has the advantage to sell diamonds that have been mined and refined locally with a guarantee of origin.