Diamond quarry "Mir" (Yakutia). Mirny city (Yakutia): diamond quarry

22.08.2023

In the city of Mirny (Yakutia) there is one of the world's largest diamond quarries - the Mir kimberlite pipe. Even helicopters do not fly over this mine: a giant funnel 525 meters deep and more than 1 kilometer in diameter, initiating updrafts, sucks in aircraft of any size.

Until recently, no human had ever set foot on these lands, where permafrost reigns. And this is not surprising: in terms of the absolute value of the minimum temperature (frosts reach -70 °C), Yakutia has no equal regions in the entire Northern Hemisphere. The diamond deposit was a discovery of extreme importance.

The diamond industry was supposed to double the economic potential of the Soviet Union. In particular, Nikita Khrushchev made the following statement regarding the strategic importance of diamonds: “It’s time to show the aggressor capitalists “Kuzka’s mother”, soon our Motherland will take a leading position in the international foreign exchange market, having developed new diamond deposits in Yakutia for the speedy creation of the material and technical base of communism in THE USSR".

In 1957, the working village of Mirny grew up near the diamond-bearing vein, which received the status of a city in 1959. To get here, the first convoys of trucks covered 2,800 kilometers of off-road terrain. Already in the 1960s, the Soviet Union was producing more than $1 billion worth of diamonds annually. One can only imagine how much effort was put into developing the quarry: at many meters deep, aggressive waters saturated with methane, hydrogen sulfide and oil arrive at a speed of 3,500 cubic meters per day, and if a unique grout curtain had not been created, the mine would inevitably have been flooded.

Years passed, and thanks to the work of workers and builders, Mirny from a tiny village turned into the center of the Russian diamond industry, a modern city with 9-story buildings and asphalt roads. Ore mining in the Mir quarry ceased in 2001, and the bottom of the mine was mothballed in preparation for mining the upper underground horizons. Geologists have discovered that the depth of diamonds exceeds 1 kilometer, and extracting them from the mine using an open pit method is unprofitable.

Today, the headquarters of the ALROSA company, which owns 75% of the diamonds mined in Yakutia, is located in Mirny. The largest diamond ever mined in Russia was found in the Mir kimberlite pipe on the eve of 1981. It weighs 342.5 carats (68.5 grams) and bears the party name - “26th Congress of the CPSU”.

Recently, the idea arose of creating a completely autonomous eco-city in the pit for 10,000 residents. It is planned to cover the pit with a translucent dome on top, on which solar panels will be installed. The climate in Yakutia is harsh, but there are many clear days there, and the batteries will be able to generate about 200 MW of electricity, which should more than meet the needs of the future city. It is also planned to use the heat of the Earth for the benefit of the project. In winter, the air in Mirny cools to -60 C, but at a depth below 150 m (that is, below permafrost), the ground temperature is above zero, which adds energy efficiency to the project.

History of the Mir kimberlite pipe

Even at the beginning of the 19th century, rumors began to arise about the presence of precious stones in the territory of Yakutia and the western lands bordering it. After the Civil War, teacher Pyotr Starovatov got into a conversation in Kempendai with an old man who told him about his discovery a couple of years ago in one of the local rivers - it was a sparkling pebble the size of a pinhead. He sold the find to a merchant for two bottles of vodka, a bag of cereal and five bags of tea. After a while, another person said that he also found precious stones on the banks of the Kempendyayk and Chona rivers. But it was only in 1947-1948 that targeted searches for diamonds began for the first time on the territory of the Siberian Platform. In the fall of 1948, a group of geologists led by G. Fanstein launched prospecting work on the Vilyui and Chona rivers, and on August 7, 1949, the group found the first diamond on the Sokolina sand spit, and subsequently a diamond placer was discovered here. Exploration work in 1950-1953 was also successful - several diamond placers were discovered, and on August 21, 1954, the first kimberlite pipe in the Soviet Union, called Zarnitsa, was discovered.

Soon, on June 13, 1955, the geological party saw a tall larch with exposed roots, where the fox had dug a deep hole. The bluish color of the earth suggested that it was kimberlite. This is how a team of geologists discovered a diamond pipe that turned out to be the largest in the world and with the richest content. The following telegram was sent to the authorities: “We lit the peace pipe, the tobacco is excellent.” Through this classified radiogram, Soviet geologists reported to the capital about the discovery of the Mir kimberlite diamond pipe. The phrase excellent tobacco meant that it contained a large amount of diamonds.

This find was extremely important for the USSR, since after the start of industrialization, the country experienced an acute shortage of industrial diamonds. It was believed that the use of diamond tools doubled the economic potential of the country, and soon the village of “Mirny” arose, where convoys moved along off-road roads, covering 2800 km of road. By the early 1960s, the USSR was already busy mining diamonds worth $1 billion a year, and the village of Mirny became the center of the Soviet diamond mining industry, today home to 40,000 people.

The richest diamond mine in the world

The deposit was developed in extremely difficult climatic conditions, and in order to break deep into the permafrost, the ground had to be blasted using dynamite. Already in 1960, the annual diamond production was 2 kilograms, and 1/5 of them were of jewelry quality.

Diamonds, after appropriate cutting, turned into amazingly beautiful diamonds that were used to create jewelry. Soviet citizens planning to get married could afford to buy exquisite diamond engagement rings, in which diamonds were mined from the Yakut Mir kimberlite pipe. The remaining 80% of mined diamonds are used for industrial purposes, since according to the Mohs scale of reference minerals of hardness it is the hardest mineral in the world, with the highest thermal conductivity, dispersion and refraction.

The South African company De Beers was most concerned about the active development of the Mir kimberlite pipe, as it was forced to buy Soviet-made diamonds in order to control prices on the world market. The top officials of the company, after negotiations with the Soviet leadership, agreed on the arrival of the delegation for their part in the village of Mirny. A positive answer was given, but with one condition - the delegation from the USSR, in turn, would visit diamond quarries in South Africa.

A delegation of the South African company arrived in Moscow in 1776 with the aim of further flight to the village of Mirny, but it was deliberately delayed, arranging endless meetings and banquets. When the delegation finally arrived in Yakutia to inspect the Mir kimberlite pipe, they only had 20 minutes left to inspect it. Despite this, De Beers specialists were greatly impressed by the scope of what they saw, and were surprised that Soviet specialists did not use water when processing the ore. Considering that the temperature in this region has been below freezing for 7 months, it is simply impossible to do this.

Today, the city of Mirny has turned from a small tent settlement into a modern industrial city, where there are asphalt roads, developed infrastructure and high-rise nine-story buildings. There is an airport, two diamond processing factories, a city park, bars, restaurants, an art gallery, swimming pools, a stadium, 3 libraries, an art school, a modern Palace of Culture and a 4-story hotel. For a provincial town there is quite a high intellectual potential here. The Yakutniproalmaz Research Institute has been operating here for many years and the Polytechnic Institute is open to applicants.

During the 44 years of operation of the Mir quarry (from 1957 to 2001), diamonds worth $17 billion were mined here. The scale of the quarry increased to such latitudes that trucks had to travel almost 8 km along a spiral road in order to rise to the surface from the bottom of the quarry.

Today, the diamond quarry is owned by the Russian company ALROSA, which in 2001 stopped mining ore in the Mir quarry using open-pit technology. The main reason is low efficiency and danger.

Research by scientists has shown that diamonds lie at a depth of more than 1000 meters, and in order to establish effective mining, not a quarry is needed, but an underground mine. The planned capacity of such a mine will be about a million tons of ore annually. The total period planned for development of the field is 34 years.

Interesting facts about the kimberlite pipe

Helicopters are strictly prohibited from flying over the deep quarry. The reason is as follows - a huge funnel causes air turbulence in which aircraft cannot maneuver safely.
The walls of the quarry are incredibly high, and they contain danger not only for helicopters. There is an increased risk of landslides here.

According to rumors, local residents are afraid that one day a huge quarry could absorb the adjacent territories, including those that are built up for human habitation, but these are just urban legends in the village of Mirny.

Ecological city of the future on the site of a former diamond mine

Today, the empty huge pit is of interest to scientists, and ideas are already emerging to create an eco-city in this funnel. The head of the Moscow architectural bureau Nikolai Lyutomsky shared his plans for an incredible solution. “The main part of the project is a concrete structure of enormous scale, which will act as a kind of plug, bursting the quarry from the inside. A dome transparent to light will cover the top of the foundation pit, and it is planned to install solar panels on it.

Despite the harsh climate of Yakutia, there are quite a lot of clear days a year, and the batteries can generate about 200 MW of electricity. It will be enough to meet the needs of the future city. In addition, you can use the heat of the Earth, and if in winter the air temperature is minus 60 degrees Celsius, then the soil temperature at a depth below 150 meters will be positive (below permafrost). This fact adds energy efficiency to the future project. The city is planned to be divided into three parts:

Upper will be used for permanent residence of people. It will contain residential buildings, buildings and structures of socio-cultural and administrative significance;
Middle tier— a zone where there will be a forest and a park area designed to purify the air in the city;
Lower tier will be a so-called vertical farm - agricultural products will be grown here to meet the needs of the city.

The total planned area of the project is 3 million square meters. The city will be able to accommodate up to 10,000 tourists, farm employees and service personnel.

On August 21, 2009, a new significant date in the history of diamond mining, the Mir underground mine was launched in Mirny. This is the apogee of many years of work of thousands of people, a powerful production unit of AK ALROSA, which allows the extraction of about 1 million tons of ore containing diamonds. In recent years, Russia has confidently held the palm in diamond mining, thanks to the ALROSA company. During the year, diamonds worth $1.7 billion were exported, most of them to European countries.

But the Mir tube was the first to be developed. The deposit was initially developed using the open-pit method, and then, as the quarry deepened, the development gradually switched to the underground method of diamond mining. The quarry has a depth of 525 m and a diameter of 1.2 km. Open pit mining of diamond-bearing kimberlite ore was discontinued in June 2001. Since 2009, diamond ore mining has been carried out only at the Mir underground mine.

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✪ Mir kimberlite pipe (Yakutia) - one of the largest diamond quarries in the world

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Subtitles

History of discovery

We smoked a peace pipe, the tobacco was excellent. Avdeenko, Elagina, Khabardin.

For the discovery of the Mir pipe, Yu. I. Khabardin was awarded the Lenin Prize, E. N. Elagina was awarded a diploma and a diploma “Discoverer of the Deposit,” and also became an honorary citizen of Mirny.

Geological structure

The Mir pipe is located in the Malo-Botuobinsky diamondiferous region. The Mir kimberlite pipe is a steeply dipping pipe-shaped body, cone-shaped to a depth of 300 m (mark +30 m). The cross-sectional area of the ore body decreases with depth and at a depth of 900 m it becomes a dike body. The pipe is composed of kimberlite rocks formed as a result of three-phase intrusion of kimberlite magma. Rocks of different phases differ little in composition, physical and mechanical properties and diamond content. The gas content, bituminous content and oil content of highly porous layers, host carbonate rocks and, to a lesser extent, kimberlites, led to the classification of the underground mine as dangerous for gas and oil manifestations. In this regard, the excavation of underground workings in thick carbonate formations is carried out after drilling the rock mass before the face of the workings with advanced degassing wells.

Diamond mining

Quarry development

In 1957, open-pit diamond mining began and continued for 44 years (until June 2001). The village of Mirny was formed near the quarry, which became the center of the Soviet diamond mining industry. The largest diamond found in Russia was mined from the Mir quarry on December 23, 1980. It weighs 342.5 carats (more than 68 g) and is called “XXVI Congress of the CPSU”. In recent years, mining trucks have been driving along a spiral road 8 km from the bottom to the surface.

During its work, the quarry was reconstructed 3 times, a unique grouting curtain was created that prevented the entry of aggressive brines from the Metegero-Ichersky aquifer complex, as well as a drainage system for 32,250 m³ of water per day (about 1 million m³ per month).

Over the years of development using the open-pit (quarry) method, diamonds were extracted from the deposit, according to unofficial data, worth 17 billion US dollars, and about 350 million m 3 of rock were removed.

Development in the mine

Geological exploration has shown that the depth of diamonds exceeds a kilometer, so currently the ALROSA company, which is developing the deposit, is building an underground mine at the deposit. For the construction of an underground mine and future safe mining of the upper underground horizons, the bottom of the mothballed quarry was covered with a special protective layer of rock. This “cushion”, or “pillar”, is not susceptible to burst pressure, its thickness is 45 meters.

Miners plan to extract diamond-containing ore from the kimberlite pipe underground for 34 years. The mine, the first stage of which was put into operation in 2009 (mining of the cage shaft of the mine began on March 7, 2002, and the skip shaft in August 2003), has a design capacity of one million tons of ore per year.

Mirninsky GOK

The Mirny Mining and Processing Plant is the oldest enterprise of ALROSA. It is located in the city of Mirny and was founded in 1957 in connection with the start of development of the Mir kimberlite pipe deposit. Currently, the mining and processing plant is developing the primary deposits of the Mir and Internatsionalnaya pipes, as well as a number of placer deposits, using the underground method. Ore coming from all mining enterprises of the mining and processing plant is processed at factory No. 3, the design capacity of which is 2 million tons of ore per year.

Structure and characteristics of production facilities

Underground mine "International"

The mine began operations in 1999 and in 2002 reached its full design capacity of 500 thousand tons of ore per year. In 2014, the mine produced 3.862 million carats of diamonds. Open-pit mining at the field was completed in 2011. International diamonds are unique in their jewelry qualities and are especially valued on the world market. The mine has the highest diamond content in its ore. With a grade of 8.09 carats per tonne, its reserves are sufficient to sustain mining for the next 27 years.
Mining at the International mine is carried out using a mechanized layer mining system with backfilling. Ore is crushed using combines. Loading and hauling machines deliver ore to the ore passes, then it is transported in trolleys along the haulage horizon to the main ore pass, through which the ore enters the main shaft and is then released to the surface.

Mir underground mine

The Mir mine has become no less unique than the quarry that operated at the deposit until 2001. Commissioning of the underground mine began in 2009. The capacity of the Mir mine is 1 million tons of ore per year. In 2014, the mine produced 1.463 million carats of diamonds. Mining operations are carried out using a mechanized layer mining system with backfilling of mined-out space. Ore is broken by combines, loading and delivery vehicles load and deliver ore from mining sites to one of two ore passes, which ensure the transfer of ore to another transport horizon.

Dredge fleet

A special feature of the plant is the only diamond dredge fleet in the Russian Federation and in the ALROSA company, represented by three dredges. These floating complexes move along the bed of the Irelyakh River, lifting tons of diamond-bearing sands from the river bottom, carrying out their primary enrichment.

Water in the World

In the area where the Mir pipe is located there passes the Metegeroichersky aquifer, which was opened during the mining of ore in the quarry. According to the project for underground mining of the deposit, all water from the quarry must be continuously pumped out and injected into the faults that geologists have found in the earth’s crust. The water accumulated in the quarry also floods the mine located underground.

For safety reasons, water is continuously pumped out of the quarry. Additional work is currently underway, as a result of which the entire influx of water should become manageable. In particular, structures will be launched to intercept water on the upper horizons. Thus, the mine will fully comply with all safety requirements.

Incidents

On October 9, 2012, a collapse occurred at the Mir mine. Backfill material with an area of 20 linear meters collapsed. At the time of the accident, there were 110 people at the mine. As a result of the collapse, 1 person died. 109 mine workers independently reached the surface.

Notes

50 years from the discovery of the first kimberlite pipe in the Soviet Union, “Zarnitsa,” by geologist L.A. Parrot (Russian). National Library of the Republic of Sakha. Retrieved June 13, 2013. Archived June 14, 2013.
Mirninsky GOK (Russian). Community of mining specialists. Retrieved June 13, 2013.

A rescue operation continues at the famous Mir diamond mine in Yakutia. On Friday morning, water from the quarry broke into the mine where 151 people were working. Almost all the miners were raised to safe levels. However, nine people are still in the mine, and the operation to rescue them continues. The prosecutor's office and the authorities of Yakutia, the Investigative Committee and Rostechnadzor will now find out why water appeared in the mine with people.

The largest technological accident at the Mir kimberlite pipe occurred at 10:35 local time. At the minus 210 horizon, flooding occurred at the main drainage pumping station No. 2. At the time of the accident, there were 151 people in the mine workings at this level. Several dozen more miners worked above. Initially, according to the Mash public, only 90 miners got in touch; the rest could not be contacted. The cage was also unable to be lowered into the shaft due to a power failure.

A rescue operation immediately began at the mine, led by employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Yakutia. A task force from the Ministry of Emergency Situations headed by Minister Vladimir Puchkov, who is now in neighboring Buryatia with the Russian President, flew to the scene of the accident, as well as five teams of mine rescuers and underground divers - about 30 people in total.

At the mine, a group of forces and means of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations has been created in the amount of 36 people and six units of equipment from the Yakutsky VGSO branch of the FSUE VGSCh and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), measures have been planned to build it up, the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Life.

In addition, the head of Alrosa, Sergei Ivanov, flew to Yakutia as soon as it became known that there were people in the flooded mine.

At approximately 13:00, communication was established with 130 miners located in the mine workings, electricity was supplied and two lifting units were launched. After another half hour, the water left the flooded areas of the mine. By evening, 142 miners were raised. The search for nine more is underway.

Rostechnadzor, the Investigative Committee, the prosecutor's office, the authorities of Yakutia, as well as specialists from Alrosa itself will now deal with the causes of the accident. First of all, the auditors intend to find out why water got into the mine and what was done to prevent this.

According to preliminary data, the accident could have occurred due to violations of the technology for preserving waste wells, a source in the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Life. - In addition, all workings must have sensors that react to the movement of layers in order to make a decision: to evacuate people or continue work. The commission will find out whether there were such sensors at the Mir mine and how the responsible persons reacted to their readings.

The Alrosa company also named the preliminary cause of today's flooding of the mine. It is noted that this could be an uncontrolled increase in water inflow from the exhausted quarry bowl into the underground mine. In turn, this happened due to “a sharp deterioration in mining and geological conditions and erosion of the host rocks into the quarry.”

Although a preliminary version of the causes of the accident has already been announced, there are other assumptions regarding what happened. The roots of the emergency may be hidden in the history of technological development of the diamond field. Open-pit diamond mining at Mir began in 1957 and continued until 2001. Over 44 years of operation, the depth of the quarry reached 520 meters. The quarry dump trucks transporting the rock covered as many as eight kilometers from the bottom to the surface!!! Then the question arose about the need to build an underground mine.

In 2000, engineers from the Moscow Mining University calculated that the gap between the end of open-pit mining and the start of underground mining would be - depending on the options - from two to eight years. In their opinion, development could be carried out using technology with forced caving of ore or with artificial maintenance of the mined-out space (using backfill). Alrosa had to make a choice in favor of one of the technologies.

Cavity systems generally perform well in terms of production costs, labor productivity, and field development intensity. This is explained by the lack of processes for laying and securing the treatment space. In the conditions of the Mir mine, the use of caving mining systems, according to engineers, had practically no alternative, since backfill systems do not ensure the safety of underground mining and are economically ineffective. The cost of ore mining at the Mir mine using backfill systems was at least $35/t, and with caving systems - about $8/t, engineers from Moscow Mining University calculated in 2000. They even assessed the economic efficiency of using systems with collapse during development, which, according to their estimates, could amount to at least $2 billion... But at that time the management at Alrosa chose a more costly one and, as the accident showed, not very secure development system.

Experts were divided in their opinions regarding the predetermination of the incident due to the fact that at one time it was the mine development system with backfill that was chosen.

- They had equipment then just for such a system. Therefore, they acted by inertia, - suggested the reason for the decision in a conversation with LiFom source in the mining industry.

According to him, other development systems required different technology.

- And this one was already bought by the company, - he added.

According to him, the backfill options involve preserving the quarry and the water in it. Water must be passed through the channel and pumped to the surface. The insulating materials turned out to be not very reliable, so water began to flow into the underground mine.

- Maybe this happened because this year was like this. There was a lot of rain and, as a result, a lot of groundwater. Water inflows have risen.

The water pumping system probably does not provide for such volumes. As for the subsequent projects of Alrosa, “Udachny” is more thoughtful and provides for a development system with collapse and with forced collapse. And, of course, there will not be such an unexpected effect. If there is such an increase in water inflow, then it will affect the intercepting wells, the intercepting rings of the horizon, but it will not be a surprise. There everything is filtered on the lower horizons and you can immediately see what is happening. It’s not like it accumulated, then bang-bang-bang - and it burst,” a source told Life.

However, not everyone agrees with this version.

- At the time when the decision was made on the underground development method, a water curtain had already been formed in the middle part of the quarry - a capital hydraulic structure that retains the pressure of the water column created by the Metegero-Ichersky aquifer. It must be maintained for the entire period of operation of the field. No collapse system could guarantee the stability of this curtain. It’s just that if there had been a collapse, then the water breakthrough could have happened much earlier. It's not that the choice of development system is wrong. The stability of the curtain could only be ensured by correct filling of the mined-out space with strict adherence to the mining regime, - commented Life of the MountainsEngineer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Subsoil Development Design Theory, Chief Researcher at the Institute for Problems of Integrated Subsoil Development (IPKON) Marina Rylnikova.

The quarry is 520 meters deep, with a large underground aquifer running through the middle part. Underground river. It was intercepted around the perimeter by injecting cement concrete mortar. And this curtain holds the pressure of mineralized waters to a height of about 100 meters. The curtain must not be subjected to critical deformations. Retaining the water column is the main task of the formed capital hydraulic structure.

“Only systems with a hardening backfill can prevent such deformations,” notes Marina Rylnikova.

Another thing is to ensure the regime and parameters for performing work on filling mined-out space.

- Here it is impossible to violate the regime of backfilling work, the timeliness of filling voids, there must be a special backfill that does not allow the dissolution of salt rocks at the contact with diamond-bearing kimberlites. The dissolution of salt and the formation of uncontrolled voids must not be allowed,” Marina Rylnikova told Life.

A kimberlite pipe is a vertical or nearly vertical geological body that was formed as a result of a breakthrough through gases. This pillar is truly gigantic in size. The kimberlite pipe has a shape that resembles a huge carrot or glass. Its upper part is a giant conical bulge, but with depth it gradually narrows and finally turns into a vein. In fact, such a geological body is a kind of ancient volcano, the ground part of which was largely destroyed due to erosion processes.

What is kimberlite?

This material is which consists of phlogopite, pyrope, olivine and other minerals. Kimberlite is black in color with greenish and bluish tints. At the moment, more than one and a half thousand bodies of the mentioned material are known, ten percent of which belong to the diamond rock. Experts note that approximately 90% of all diamond reserves are concentrated in kimberlite pipes, and the remaining 10% in lamproite pipes.

Mysteries related to the origin of diamonds

Despite many studies carried out in the field of diamond deposits, modern scientists are still unable to explain some of the features associated with the origin and existence of these precious stones.

Riddle one: why is the kimberlite pipe located exclusively on ancient platforms and shields, which are the most stable and stable blocks of the earth's crust? After all, the thickness of these layers reaches 40 kilometers of rock consisting of basalts, granites, etc. What kind of force is needed to make such a breakthrough?! Why does a kimberlite pipe pierce a powerful platform, and not a thinner one, say, the ocean floor, which is only ten kilometers thick, or transition zones at the boundaries of oceans with continents? After all, in these areas there are hundreds. Geologists are not able to answer this question.

The next mystery is the amazing shape of the kimberlite pipe. In fact, it does not look like a pipe at all, but rather like a huge cone on a thin leg that goes deep into the depths.

The third mystery concerns the unusual shape of the minerals in such rocks. All minerals that crystallize under molten magma conditions form well-cut crystals. Examples include apatite, zircon, olivine, garnet, and ilmenite. They are widespread in kimberlites, but do not have crystalline faces, but resemble. All attempts by geologists to find an answer to this riddle have led nowhere. At the same time, diamonds located next to the mentioned minerals have the ideal shape of octahedrons, which are characterized by sharp edges.

What was the name of the first kimberlite pipe?

The first of these geological bodies that were found and developed by people is located in the south of the African continent in the Kimberley province. The name of this area has become a common noun for all such bodies, as well as for the rock containing diamonds. This first pipe is called the "Big Hole" and is considered the largest quarry developed by humans without the use of machinery. Currently, it has completely exhausted itself and is the main attraction of the city. From 1866 to 1914, the first kimberlite pipe produced 2,722 micrograms of diamonds, amounting to 14.5 million carats. About 50 thousand people worked in the quarry, who used shovels and picks to extract about 22.5 million tons of soil. The development area is 17 hectares, its perimeter is 1.6 km, and its width is 463 m. The depth of the quarry was 240 meters, but after the end of mining it was filled with waste rock. Currently, the “Big Hole” is an artificial lake, the depth of which is only 40 meters.

The largest diamond quarry

Diamond mining in Russia began in the middle of the last century with the discovery in 1954 of the Zarnitsa deposit, which was 32 hectares in size. A year later, a second kimberlite diamond pipe was found in Yakutia, and it was given the name “Mir”. The city of Mirny grew up around this deposit. Today, the mentioned kimberlite pipe (the photo will help the reader imagine the enormity of this diamond deposit) is considered the largest in the world. The depth of the quarry is 525 meters, and the diameter is 1.2 km. Open-pit diamond mining ceased in 2004. Currently, an underground mine is being built to mine the remaining reserves, the extraction of which by open-pit mining is dangerous and unprofitable. According to experts, the development of the tube in question will continue for at least another 30 years.

History of the Mir kimberlite pipe

The development of the field was carried out in harsh climatic conditions. In order to break through the permafrost, it was necessary to blast the rock with dynamite. Already in the 60s of the last century, the deposit produced 2 kg of diamonds per year, and 20 percent of them were of jewelry quality and, after cutting, were supplied to jewelry stores as diamonds. The rest were used for industrial purposes. From 1957 to 2001, the Mir quarry produced diamonds with a total value of $17 billion. During this period, the quarry expanded so much that freight transport had to travel 8 kilometers from the surface to the bottom along a spiral road. Helicopters were strictly forbidden to fly over the object, since the huge funnel simply sucked in all aircraft. The high walls of the quarry are also dangerous for ground transport and people working in mining: there is a risk of landslides. Today, scientists are developing a project for an eco-city, which should be located in a quarry. To do this, it is planned to cover the pit with a translucent dome, on which solar panels will be installed. They plan to divide the space of the future city into tiers: the upper one - for a residential area, the middle one - to create a forest park area, and the lower one will have agricultural purposes.

Conclusion

Diamond mining has a long history. As new deposits were discovered and explored ones were depleted, leadership passed first from India to Brazil, and then to South Africa. At the moment, the leading position is occupied by Botswana, the second place is occupied by Russia.

Diamond quarry "Mir" (Yakutia). Mirny city (Yakutia): diamond quarry

History of the Mir kimberlite pipe

The richest diamond mine in the world

Interesting facts about the kimberlite pipe

Ecological city of the future on the site of a former diamond mine

Encyclopedic YouTube

Subtitles

History of discovery

Geological structure

Diamond mining

Quarry development

Development in the mine

Mirninsky GOK

Structure and characteristics of production facilities

Underground mine "International"

Mir underground mine

Dredge fleet

Water in the World

Incidents

see also

Notes

What is kimberlite?

Mysteries related to the origin of diamonds

What was the name of the first kimberlite pipe?

The largest diamond quarry

History of the Mir kimberlite pipe

Conclusion