ALROSA mines over USD 2 bln worth of diamonds in 2009.

MOSCOW, February 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The diamond-producing company
ALROSA mined 2.264 billion worth of diamonds in 2009, virtually keeping
production at the 2008 level.

The parent company alone produced 1.661 billion U.S. dollars worth of
diamonds last year, according to a report submitted to the company's board
on Friday.
Preliminary results for 2009 announced in December of last year show
that ALROSA had sold 2.187 billion U.S. dollars worth of uncut and cut
diamonds.
A feasibility study for a mining and dressing plant at the Lomonosov
field and the development of the Severalmaz company was presented to the
board members. A total of 54.8 million tonnes of ore are planned to be
processed in 2010-2026.
The feasibility study also calls for the construction of an additional
dressing facility with a capacity of three million tonnes of ore a year.
It will be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2013 and should start
operating at full capacity in the first quarter of 2015.
ALROSA sold 923.4 million U.S. dollars worth of rough diamonds to the
Gokhran state depository in 2009, selling the rest on the market.
The company plans to mine 2.314 billion worth of diamonds and sell
3.302 billion U.S. dollars worth of diamonds in 2010.

.FAS says oil market to be transparent if at least 15 prc of oil sold
on exchange.

OMSK, February 13 (Itar-Tass) -- At least 15 percent of oil and petrol
products should be solved on domestic exchanges for the oil market to be
transparent, Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) chief Igor Artemyev said.
He believes that "exchange trade will make it possible to solve the
problems of taxation, transparency and openness in this sector".
Until recently "companies did not seek to sell petrol products
openly", Artemyev said at an energy meeting chaired by President Dmitry
Medvedev on Friday.
"There has formed a system with a certain number of intermediaries,
making it practically impossible to buy petrol products directly from oil
refineries," he said, adding, "It was often criminal activity."
Responding to the president's question, Artemeyev said that a positive
trend had begun to develop in 2009: the volume of exchange trade "trebled
to 2 percent of all fuel sold on the market".
"But that's not enough," he said. "It should be at least 15 percent.
Then a domestic market price for oil and petrol products will form, and
FAS will not penalise sellers and buyers because they will make deals
through exchange bidding."
He is confident that exchange mechanisms will make it possible to get
rid of various resellers. "Every year we try to buy fuel directly from oil
refineries, but it's impossible to do," he complained, adding that
sometimes dozens of intermediaries get in the way between the seller and
the government buyer.
"The only way to get rid of that is to direct exchange trade," he said.

.Flags fly at half-staff at Vancouver Olympics after Georgian luger's
death.

VANCOUVER, February 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The national flags of the
Vancouver Olympics participating states are flying at half mast at the
opening ceremony in memory of Georgian luger Nodar Kumatrishvili's tragic
death during a training run on Friday.
International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge expressed
condolences in connection with the athlete's death.
The Georgian delegation marched at the opening ceremony wearing black
armbands and had a black ribbon tied to their flag top honour their
teammate.

.Timoshenko Bloc to apologise if vote recount confirms Yanukovich's
victory.

KIEV, February 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The Yulia Timoshenko Bloc (BYT) will
apologise to the opposition Party of Regions if its candidate Viktor
Yanukovich's victory is confirmed after votes have been recounted,
Timoshenko's election headquarters chief, First Vice Prime Minister
Alexander Turchinov said.
"If we are wrong and the recount shows that everything is fine and
there was no vote rigging, we will apologise to our opponents," he told
the Inter television channel on Friday evening.
At the same time, he said, "We do not trust the judiciary. We know the
situation in the Higher Administrative Court: The judiciary is not a
guarantor of an objective investigation of this and other problems. It is
fundamentally important for us to attract attention to the fact of
falsifications in order to avert them in the future. The Yulia Timoshenko
headquarters has filed complaints contesting the results of the election
at 1,200 polling stations," Turchinov said.

.Pre-term parliamentary elections may be held in Ukraine this
autumn-official.

KIEV, February 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Pre-term parliamentary elections may
be held in Ukraine this coming autumn, parliament first deputy speaker
Alexander Lavrinovich said.
"If no coalition is formed in the parliament and there is no working
government before autumn, negotiations on the formation of the coalition
will not begin, but there will be vote counting after pre-term
parliamentary elections. There will be a totally different configuration
and different subjects that will negotiate among themselves what to do
with what is left of Ukraine," Lavrinovich told Inter television on Friday.
-0-zak/


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