Alrosa uses gas sale proceeds to repay loans

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner Alrosa has used the proceeds of the cash sale of its gas assets to repay $450-million in bank loans.

The company announced on Monday that it had repaid a $250-million loan from Rosbank and a $200-million portion of its existing Raiffeisenbank loan, reducing its debt by more than 27% to $1.17-billion.

The early repayment of the loans would save Alrosa $9-million in interest payments, deputy CEO and CFO Alexey Philippovskiy said in a statement.

Russian non-State gas producer Novatek last month won a 30-billion-rouble bid for Alrosa’s two noncore gas assets.