ttp://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/amazing-views/7-circular-geological-oddities Diamond Mine — Mirny, Russia Add this to our It’s So Bad It’s Good category: Eastern Siberia’s grotesquely enormous Mirny Diamond Mine. Mirny’s diameter of 1.2km (.75 miles) means that, technically, it is only the second largest open mine in the world (after Bingham Canyon, below). But the mine’s depth of 525 meters (1,722 feet), combined with its location at the edge of a 40,000 person town, makes it the world’s most ominous looking. As you can see in the photos it appears almost like the very planet is swallowing the town of Mirny. In fact, this is not far from the reality of it. Originally the mine was small and far from the town. Then the mine started producing many more diamonds than expected, which not only increased the size of the mine but also the size of the town (as workers moved in). Today the mine employs over 3,000 people and is so large that helicopters and small aircraft can not fly near it without the very real fear of being sucked in! And if you think it’s big today, check it out a few years from now. The mine’s owner have plans to drill down as far as 1.3 kilometers over the next three decades. As that happens whole sections of the town of Mirny will have to be torn down and rebuilt further afield. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_mine Wikipedia Mir Mine (Russian: ????????????? ???????? ?????? «???» Kimberlitovaya Almaznaya Trubka "Mir"; English: kimberlite diamond pipe "Peace") also called Mirny Mine was an open pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The mine is 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep (4th in the world) and has a diameter of 1,200 m (3,900 ft),[1] and is the second largest excavated hole in the world, after Bingham Canyon Mine. The airspace above the mine is closed for helicopters because of a few incidents in which they were sucked in by the downward air flow.[2][3][4][5] The mine was discovered on June 13, 1955 by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They found traces of volcanic rock kimberlite which are usually associated with diamonds. This finding was the first success in the search for kimberlite in Russia, after numerous failed expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s. For this discovery, in 1957 Khabardin was given the Lenin Prize, which was one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union.[6][7] The development of the mine had started in 1957 in extremely harsh climate conditions. Seven months of winter per year froze the ground into permafrost, which was hard in winter, but turned into sludge in summer. Buildings had to be raised on piles, so that they would not sink in summer, and the main processing plant had to be built on a better ground found 20 km away from the mine. The winter temperatures were so low that car tires and steel would shatter and oil would freeze. During the winter, the workers used jet engines to defreeze and dig out the permafrost or blasted it with dynamite to get access to the underlying kimberlite. The entire mine had to be covered at night to prevent the machinery from freezing.[2][8] In the 1960s the mine was producing 10,000,000 carats (2,000 kg) of diamond per year, of which a relatively high fraction (20%) were of gem quality.[2] The upper layers of the mine (down to 340 meters) had very high diamond content of 4 carats (0.80 g) per tonne of ore, with the relatively high ratio of gems to industrial stones. The yield decreased to about 2 carats (0.40 g) per tonne and the production rate slowed to 2,000,000 carats (400 kg) per year near the pit bottom. The largest diamond of the mine was found on 23 December 1980; it weighed 342.5 carats (68 g) and was named "26th Congress CPSU" (Russian: XXVI ????? ????). The mine operation was interrupted in 1990s at a depth of 340 m after the pit bottom became flooded but resumed later.[9][10] The rapid development of the Mir mine had worried De Beers company, which at that time was distributing most of the world's diamonds. De Beers had to buy Russian diamonds in order to control the market price, and therefore needed to know as much as possible about the Russian mining developments. In the 1970s, De Beers requested permission to visit the Mir mine. Permission was granted under condition that Russian experts would visit De Beers diamond mines in South Africa. De Beers executive Sir Philip Oppenheimer and chief geologist Barry Hawthorne arrived in Moscow in the summer of 1976. They were intentionally delayed in Moscow by arranging a series of meetings and lavish banquets with Soviet geologists, mineralogists, engineers and mine managers. When Oppenheimer and Hawthorne finally reached the Mir mine, their visas were about to expire, so that they could only have 20 minutes at the Mir mine. Even that short time was sufficient to get some important details. For example, the Russians did not use water during the ore processing at all, which was astonishing to De Beers. The reason was that water would freeze most of the year, and dry crushing was used instead. De Beers also overestimated the size of the mine's pit. The Mir mine was the first and the largest diamond mine in the Soviet Union.[11] Its surface operation lasted 44 years, finally closing in June 2001.[10] After the collapse of the USSR, in the 1990s, the mine was operated by the Sakha diamond company, which reported annual profits in excess of $600 million from diamond sales.[12] Currently, the mine is operated by Alrosa, the largest diamond producing company in Russia, and employs 3600 workers. It has long been anticipated that the recovery of diamonds by conventional surface methods will saturate. Therefore, in 1970s construction has started of a network of underground tunnels for diamond recovery. Production of diamonds by this method started in 1999 and is estimated to last for another 27 years. This estimate is based on depth explorations down to 1220 meters. In order to stabilize the abandoned main pit, its bottom was covered by a rubble layer 45 meters thick.[1] [edit] ====================== http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/worlds-largest-diamond-mine.html bldgblog.blogspot World's largest diamond mine This diamond mine in eastern Siberia (Mirny, to be exact) is so deep that the surrounding "air zone... is closed for helicopters" after "a few accidents when they were 'sucked in' by downward air flow..." Finally, look for the tiny red arrow in the following photograph; it's pointing to a 220-ton rock-hauling truck more than 20' tall. (Thanks to JavaFAQ and Javier Arbona [via Kazys Varnelis] for both the link and photos.) Meanwhile, something altogether different and Jules Vernian is about to occur thanks to some Japanese scientists hoping to drill down into the earth's mantle: "Using a giant drill ship launched [in July 2005], the researchers aim to be the first to punch a hole through the rocky crust that covers our planet and to reach the mantle below." And then, in an oddly Borgesian, or perhaps MC Escherian, moment of nomenclatural mise-en-abîme, "The 57,500-tonne drill ship Chikyu (Japanese for Earth) is being prepared in the southern port of Nagasaki. Two-thirds the length of the Titanic, it is fitted with technology borrowed from the oil industry that will allow it to bore through 7,000 metres of crust below the seabed while floating in 2,500 metres of water – requiring a drill pipe 25 times the height of the Empire State building." For some sense of perspective here, the diamond mine, pictured above, is 1200 meters deep; that means that to reach the mantle, the Japanese will have to produce a drill-hole nearly seven times deeper than the mine (which sounds alarmingly easy, actually – I was expecting to be horrified). In any case, the drill-ship is called *Earth* and it's being drilled down into the earth... The attack of the simulacra begins. ======================= The Tech journal http://thetechjournal.com/off-topic/worlds-biggest-diamond-mine-mirny-mir-mine.xhtml?utm_source=wahoha.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wahoha This giant truck, BELAZ (200-220 ton payload ) (see Figure 1), looks like small spot on next picture (see Figure 2). The truck in the picture, one of the biggest in the world, is just a small point in comparison to the diamond mine. The town is strictly off limits to outsiders without a special permit and the authorities regard any foreigners with considerable suspicion. BBC Reported about this here History: The mine was discovered on June 13, 1955 by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They found traces of volcanic rock kimberlite which are usually associated with diamonds. This finding was the first success in the search for kimberlite in Russia, after numerous failed expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s. For this discovery, in 1957 Khabardin was given the Lenin Prize, which was one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union. The development of the mine had started in 1957 in extremely harsh climate conditions. Seven months of winter per year froze the ground into permafrost, which was hard in winter, but turned into sludge in summer. Buildings had to be raised on piles, so that they would not sink in summer, and the main processing plant had to be built on a better ground found 20 km away from the mine. The winter temperatures were so low that car tires and steel would shatter and oil would freeze. During the winter, the workers used jet engines to defreeze and dig out the permafrost or blasted it with dynamite to get access to the underlying kimberlite. The entire mine had to be covered at night to prevent the machinery from freezing. Originally Posted: http://thetechjournal.com/off-topic/worlds-biggest-diamond-mine-mirny-mir-mine.xhtml#ixzz1BoZtI7LK http://www.expressdiamonds.com.au/diamond-mining The Two Methods of Diamond Mining There are two main methods for diamond mining. Firstly; pipe mining and secondly; alluvial mining. In pipe mining, the earth is crushed and flushed with water as it moves onto conveyor belts through tubes. The washed diamond matter is then released onto greased belts. Any diamonds will stick to the grease whereas other matter will be washed away. Recovered diamonds can then be used for the creation of gems. In the alluvial mining process, bulldozers are used to place sand directly into washing plants for processing. Alluvial mining is less costly than opencast pipe mining. The seven largest and most productive mining sites in the world are distributed among the seven big diamond producing countries. Australia, Zaire, Botswana, South Africa, Russia, Namibia and Angola. Only estimates of diamond production numbers are available for countries like Zaire and Russia, as the governments in these countries do not publish exact figures. Diamond production in the Tshikapa and Mbuji-Mayi diamond regions in Zaire is estimated to be 17 million carats, however only 5 percent of this figure is considered to be of diamond quality making. The Mirny Diamond Mine in Russia Russia is another country where estimates of diamond production are only available. Mining in Russia is very costly as the ground is subjected to frost in the winter months with temperatures dropping to minus 60 degrees centigrade. It is believed that Russia has produced more than 100 million carats since World War II. Russia's Mirna diamond mine (or Mirny diamond mine) is the largest open diamond mine in the world. It is 525 meters deep and 1,200 meters in diameter. An uncut diamond In the Spring of 1955, a young geologist, Yuri Khabardin, came across Mirny which was a fox's hole in a ravine with blue earth. He discovered that it contained high diamond content and with excitement he sent a message over his shortwave radio indicating in code: "I am smoking the pipe of peace". In Moscow the prearranged code was comprehended to mean that the geologist had discovered and tested a kimberlite pipe. The volcanic pipe that Khabardin discovered was named Mirny to mean that it was a "peace" pipe. The mine was opened in 1957 and it is now exhausted. The history of the Mirny open mine indicates that before Mirny could begin producing diamonds, engineers in Siberia had to explore ways to overcome the harsh conditions at the mine site. During the long Winter in Yakutia, engineers found that the steel tools became so brittle that they broke like match sticks. To make matters more complicated, when the Summer came, the top layer of permafrost melted creating a swamp of thick mud. Despite these obstacles of nature, engineers transformed Mirny into an open-pit mine. In 1962, the Soviet Union agreed to sell all of its uncut diamonds to De Beers. Over the following years, diamond production reached nearly ten million a year and diamonds as a result became the leading Soviet cash export to the West. In 1968, Viktor 1. Tikhonov, the head of the Mirny Diamond Administration, said: "We call ourselves the country's foreign exchange department". In London, in the interim, the De Beers' executives were beginning to be puzzled about the increasingly large amounts of diamonds being shipped from Russia each year. More specifically, the geologists at De Beers questioned how this mine could produce five times the number of diamonds of comparable South African mines. For example, in the year 1978, the Finsch mine that went into production at roughly the same time as Mirny and covered an area more than twice that of Mirny, produced about two million carats of diamonds, whereas Mirny being much smaller produced more than ten million carats of diamonds. This was a staggering amount! Russian geologists when quizzed about this mysterious production from Mirny, suggested that Siberian ore had an extraordinary high grade of four carats a ton. As a result this number far exceeded any grade of ore in the history of diamond mining in South Africa. The other puzzling issue is that in South Africa following a few years of high production, all the pipe mines enter a phase of gradual decline. However after ten years of intensive excavations at Mirny, the production of diamonds instead of decreasing accelerated. Mirny continued to be a mine of mystery and awe for many years. Today although the Mirny open mine is now exhausted its mystery and history remains and will continue to be an interesting phenomenon in diamond research and information.