Mir mine

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title: "Mir mine" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["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"] description: "Former open pit diamond mine" topic_path: "geography/russia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_mine" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Former open pit diamond mine ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mine"]

Field	Value
name	Mir mine
image	Рудник "Мир" спустя 5 лет после затопления, г. Мирный, Республика Саха (Якутия).jpg
width	250px
caption	The Mir mine in Yakutia
pushpin_map	Russia Sakha Republic#Russia
pushpin_label	Mir Mine
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Sakha Republic, Russia
coordinates
place	Mirninsky District
subdivision_type	Federal subject
state/province	Sakha Republic
country	Russia
owner	ALROSA
official website
acquisition year	1992
products	diamonds
financial year	1960s
type	open-pit then underground
amount	10,000,000 carats (2,000 kg) per year
discovery year	1955
opening year
::

| name = Mir mine | image = Рудник "Мир" спустя 5 лет после затопления, г. Мирный, Республика Саха (Якутия).jpg | width = 250px | caption = The Mir mine in Yakutia | pushpin_map = Russia Sakha Republic#Russia | pushpin_label = Mir Mine | pushpin_map_caption = Location in Sakha Republic, Russia | coordinates = | place =Mirninsky District | subdivision_type = Federal subject | state/province = Sakha Republic | country = Russia | owner = ALROSA | official website = | acquisition year = 1992 | stock_exchange = | stock_code = | products = diamonds | financial year = 1960s | type = open-pit then underground | amount = 10,000,000 carats (2,000 kg) per year | discovery year = 1955 | opening year = The Mir mine (, ; ), also called the Mirny mine, is an open pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Sakha Republic, in the Siberian region of eastern Russia. It was the Soviet Union's first developed diamond mine, and became its largest after open-pit mining began in 1957. The pit is more than 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep (4th in the world), has a diameter of 1,200 m (3,900 ft), and is one of the largest excavated holes in the world.

Both of the two then-largest diamonds mined in Russia were discovered at Mir, in 1980 (weighing 342.57 carats) and 2025 (weighing 468 carats). The mine's surface operations were discontinued in 2001, but in 2009 it became active again as an underground diamond mine.

Discovery

The diamond-bearing deposits were discovered on 13 June 1955 by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina, and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. There they found traces of the volcanic rock kimberlite, which is usually associated with diamonds. This was the second success in the search for kimberlite in Russia (the first being Zarnitsa mine in 1954), after numerous failed expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s. For his discovery, Khabardin was given in 1957 the Lenin Prize, one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union.

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, and 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. The main processing plant had to be built on better ground, found 20 km 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 kimberlite. The entire mine had to be covered at night to prevent the machinery from freezing.

Operations

In the 1960s the mine was producing 10000000 carat of diamond per year, of which a relatively high fraction (20%) were of gem quality.

The Mir mine's surface operation lasted 44 years, finally closing in June 2001.

Later, the mine was operated by Alrosa, 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, and 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 45 m thick. 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.

Mir's largest diamonds

The then-largest diamond of the mine was found on 23 December 1980; it weighed 342.5 carat and was named "26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" ().

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

References

1. "The Nature of Diamonds - Russia". [[American Museum of Natural History]].
2. "Mirninsky GOK".
3. "Underground Mine of Mir Commissioned".
4. Анастасия Литвинова. (18 Feb 2021). "Intrigues of diamond discoverers, or who was the first to find the "Mir"". forpost-sz.ru.
5. link
6. link. Official site of town Mirny
7. "A Brief History of the World's Largest Open Pit Diamond Mine".
8. E. J. Epstein. (1982). "The diamond invention". Hutchinson.
9. "Именные алмазы (list of named diamond)".
10. (2006). "Industrial Minerals & Rocks: Commodities, Markets, and Uses". [[Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.
11. Tichotsky, John. (December 2018}} from diamond sales.{{cite book). "Russia's Diamond Colony: The Republic of Sakha". Psychology Press.
12. "Abandoned Mir Diamond Mine in Russia".
13. "Mirny Mine". MineDat.
14. Michaud, David (Chrispine). (4 September 2013). "Largest Mines in the World". 911 Metallurgist.
15. "Rescue team forced to give up hunt for four missing diamond miners; search still on for four more".
16. (5 August 2017). "Russia: Eight missing in flooded diamond mine". BBC News.
17. (8 May 2025). "Alrosa Discovers Russia’s 'Largest-Ever’ Diamond as Mir Mine Reopens". [[The Moscow Times]].

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