OREANDA-NEWS. Russian diamond miner Alrosa expects its first-quarter sales to be down 6% at $1.25-billion compared with a year ago, the state-controlled company said in a presentation for its investor day on Wednesday, miningweekly.com noted.

Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, plans to increase diamond output to 39.2-million carats in 2017 from 37.4-million carats in 2016, it said in the presentation. Production is expected to reach 40.4-million carats in 2021.

New CEO Sergey Ivanov Jr said last Thursday he would remain committed to the Russian state-controlled company’s strategy, which has focused on mining, selling non-core assets and increasing production organically. According to VTB Capital, Alrosa once again confirmed its commitment to the long-term strategy at an investor day it held in London without media access.