SHOWCASE MINE OF THE WEEK - MIRNY DIAMOND MINE!!

Mir or Mirny, another diamond mine in the Yakutia region of Russia, is the third biggest diamond mine in the world. The underground diamond mine was estimated to contain more than 141Mct of probable diamond reserves as of January 2013. The diamond mine is owned and operated by the Mirny mining and processing division of Alrosa. It extracts diamond ore from the Mir kimberlite pipe, whose JORC reserve stood at 29.586Mt grading 3.29ct/t diamond as of July 2013. The Mir pipe was discovered in 1955. Open-pit mining started in 1957 and closed in 2001. Underground mining at Mir has been underway since 2009. The mine produced 497,000 tonnes of ore in 2012. The production is expected to reach 1Mt by 2014 - Mining Technology.

To view the mine in Google Earth, kindly click on the link below:

"https://earth.app.goo.gl/eDZ2Ro"