Russian diamond miner Alrosa reported stronger diamond sales in November on the back of growing demand for smaller-sized, low-cost rough diamonds.

The company generated US$274 million in rough and polished diamond sales in November, up 13 percent from the previous month.

Rough diamond sales in terms of value amounted to US$266.6 million while polished diamond sales were US$7.4 million.

From January to November, overall sales grew 3.7 percent year-on-year to US$4.2 billion.

Alrosa Deputy CEO Yury Okoemov said the increase “may be indicative of strengthening demand for low-cost, small-sized rough diamonds, which has been declining over the past few months. However, it is too early to make final conclusions.”