Russia’s Diamond Mines Are Getting an AI Upgrade

From deep-earth drilling to gem-grade sorting, artificial intelligence is reshaping how Russia digs, cuts, and values its diamonds.

In Russia, artificial intelligence isn’t just crunching numbers or drawing cat pictures — it’s deep underground, hunting for diamonds.

ALROSA, the world’s largest diamond producer by volume, is bringing AI to the front lines of mineral extraction. The company is building its own 5G networks, laying fiber, and deploying satellite communications — all in environments as extreme as gas-filled mine shafts, where stable connectivity is a life-critical requirement.

From Digital Assistant to Autonomous Machines

Across its operations, ALROSA is leveraging homegrown digital tech. Think: AI-powered surveillance systems, speech recognition, self-driving heavy machinery, and stone-sorting robots. In one of its facilities in St. Petersburg, autonomous systems now assess not just the size and shape of rough diamonds, but their value — with precision that rivals seasoned gemologists.

The neural network behind it can predict, down to fine tolerances, the optimal cut and final worth of each stone. It doesn’t just process — it judges, with the analytical sharpness of a veteran jeweler.

AI Geologists: The New Rock Stars

But ALROSA’s AI ambitions don’t stop with shiny stones. Upstream, in geological exploration, a custom-built AI assistant is being deployed to identify the most promising diamond-bearing zones. The system visualizes potential deposits and flags likely hotspots, accelerating what used to be months of fieldwork into a few days of data analysis.

It’s not sci-fi — it’s industrial intelligence, applied at scale.

Russia’s diamond industry, once known for its brute-force approach, is now evolving into a testbed for autonomous systems and advanced analytics. With AI mining, mapping, and managing value chains, ALROSA isn’t just extracting resources — it’s extracting insight.