The Mir mine (, ; ), also called the Mirny mine, is an

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ...

diamond mine located in Mirny,

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

, in the

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

n region of eastern

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The mine is more than 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep (4th in the world), has a diameter of 1,200 m (3,900 ft),English version
/ref> and is one of the largest excavated holes in the world. Open-pit mining began in 1957 and was discontinued in 2001. Since 2009, it has been active as an underground diamond mine.

Discovery

The diamond-bearing deposits were discovered on June 13, 1955, by

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

geologists, Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina, and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They found traces of the volcanic rock

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known as the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-Car ...

, which is usually associated with

diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

. This finding was the second success in the search for kimberlite in

, after numerous failed expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s. (The first was Zarnitsa mine, 1954.) For this discovery, in 1957, Khabardin was given the

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

, one of the highest awards in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Development

The development of the mine started in 1957, in extremely harsh climate conditions. Seven months of winter per year froze the ground, making it hard to mine. During the brief summer months, the ground turned to slush. Buildings had to be raised on piles, so that they would not sink from their warmth melting the

permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...

. The main processing plant had to be built on better ground, found away from the mine. The winter temperatures were so low that car tires and steel would shatter and oil would freeze. During the winter, workers used jet engines to thaw and dig out the permafrost or blasted it with dynamite to get access to the underlying

. The entire mine had to be covered at night to prevent the machinery from freezing. In the 1960s, the mine was producing of diamond per year, of which a relatively high fraction (20%) were of gem quality. The upper layers of the mine (down to ) had very high diamond contents of per tonne of ore, with a relatively high ratio of gems to industrial stones. The yield decreased to about per tonne and the production rate slowed to per year near the pit bottom. The largest diamond of the mine was found on 23 December 1980; it weighed and was named " 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" (). The mine operation was interrupted in the 1990s at a depth of after the pit bottom became flooded, but resumed later.

Operations

The Mir mine was the first developed and the largest diamond mine in the Soviet Union. Its surface operation lasted 44 years, finally closing in June 2001. 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. Later, the mine was operated by

Alrosa Alrosa () is a Russian group of diamond mining companies that specialize in exploration, mining, manufacture, and sale of diamonds. The company leads the world in diamond mining by volume. Mining takes place in Western Yakutia, the Arkhangels ...

, the largest diamond producing company in Russia, and employed 3,600 workers. It had long been anticipated that the recovery of diamonds by conventional surface mining would end. Therefore, in the 1970s, construction of a network of tunnels for underground diamond recovery began. By 1999, the project operated exclusively as an underground mine. In order to stabilize the abandoned surface main pit, its bottom was covered by a rubble layer thick. After underground operations began, the project had a mine life estimate of 27 years, based on a drilling exploration program to a depth of . Production ceased in 2001, and the Mir mine closed in 2004. The mine was recommissioned in 2009, and is expected to remain operational for 50 more years. The underground Mir mine flooded again in 2017, trapping over 140 miners, all but eight of whom were rescued. In 2025, Alrosa announced the discovery of the largest diamond mined in Russia, a 468-carat piece named "80 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War" that was dug from the mine.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Mir mine
Mirny Diamond Mine at Atlas Obscura

United States Mine Rescue Association

BBC News Photo journal: "Postcards from Russia"

Aerial view of the Mirny Diamond Mine from Airliners.net

Biggest Diamond Mines
Diamond mines in Russia Diamond mines in the Soviet Union Diatremes of Russia Economy of Siberia Open-pit mines Science and technology in the Soviet Union Surface mines in Russia

Discovery

Development

Operations

See also

References

External links