Mar/25

Mirny – a Town on the Edge of the Abyss

No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Cities, Photos

In the mid-1950s, rich deposits of diamonds were discovered in Yakutia. The kimberlite pipe “Mir” was discovered in 1955. A new town named after it was founded near the future quarry, located about 1,100 km from Yakutsk.

Today, the town of Mirny with a population of about 34 thousand people has several large quarries and mining and processing plants for diamond mining. It is often called the capital of the diamond region or the diamond capital of Russia. Mirny on Google Maps. Photos by Stepanov Slava.

From 1957 to 2001, about 350 million cubic meters of rock were extracted from the quarry. Until 2001, the deposit was developed using an open-pit method. During this time, diamonds worth an estimated $17 billion were mined from the deposit, according to unofficial data. One of the largest excavated holes in the world, the quarry has a depth of 735 m and a diameter of 1.4 km.

In 2009-2017, mining continued at the underground mine, but after an accident, the mine and quarry were flooded and diamond mining was stopped.

In 2023, design work began on the construction of the largest diamond mining facility in the world – the new underground mine “Mir-Gluboky” (“Mir-Deep”). The active phase of construction work began in mid-2024. “Mir-Gluboky” will reach industrial production volumes no earlier than 2032.