Did you know that to produce a single one-carat diamond, ~250 tons of earth needs to be mined? This is how the second largest excavated hole in the world was born. “Mir Mine” is an abandoned diamond mine located in Mirny, Easter Siberia, Russia. The 525 meters deep and 1,200 meters wide open pit is not in function anymore. But even now, when it’s closed, it still causes serious problems for the air craft. It has already sucked in several helicopters that happened to be passing by. The size of the mine disturbs air flow like a huge vortex – that’s why air traffic above the Mir Mine is prohibited.
The closing of the mine has also put an end to the crude and almost inhuman working conditions. Having in mind that the Siberian winters last for about seven months with only brief summers that turn icy terrain into mud, workers of the Mir mine had a pretty tough life there. Freezing winters forced them to use jet engines or dynamite explosives to penetrate the icebound ground levels.
Despite mine’s brutal working conditions, during its best times the mine would produce 10 million carats of diamonds, creating kind of a secretive image. Many could only guess why it was doing so well, what its secret was. After USSR’s downfall the mine survived several more years, but was permanently closed in 2004.
Sources: amusingplanet, Abazias, Wikipedia, igl-labs.com
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