He said the partially state-owned miner was working on using various technologies as it looked to the future, including the use of drones.

"Every company should be striving to move with changes whether they be social or economic challenges and embrace new technology and changing consumer needs," Ivanov said.

In terms of digitisation, ALROSA was also investigating being able to trace every stone from the deposit - "…and maybe, even the worker who extracted it," he said.

Ivanov, 37, was one of the leading mining executives interviewed for the "Mining Journal Global Leadership Report: Preparing for transformation" being released next month.

The company reopened its representative office in New York this week and said it had successfully held its first auction there in two years for the sale of special size rough diamonds.

This is based on an interview with ALROSA CEO Sergey Ivanov as part of the ‘Mining Journal Global Leadership Report: Preparing for transformation', which will be published in late June. The report features around 20 in-depth interviews with the industry's leading mining executives and the results of our industry-wide survey focused on transformational influences (technology, stakeholder engagement etc) and the readiness of mining leaders to meet these challenges.