معادن ایران

Nothing marks the presence of humans better than a massive hole in the ground (clear-cutting came a close second). Boring deep into the Earth for the love of riches and resources, we humans dig deep and often. In the town of Mirny in Eastern Siberia, lies the largest open pit diamond mine in the world. It’s also the second largest excavated hole in the world, second only to the Bingham Canyon Mine in Salt Lake City, Utah. Check out the incredible images below with facts littered throughout.

Mir Mine, also called Mirny Mine, is the second largest excavated hole in the world. It is 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep and 1,200 meters (3,900 ft) wide. The hole is so big that even the airspace above the mine was closed to helicopters as there were several incidents of them being sucked in by the downward air flow.

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. 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”. The mine operation was interrupted in 1990s at a depth of 340 m after the pit bottom became flooded but it eventually resumed