Before it closed on April 30, 2004, the Mir Mine located near Mirny in Siberia was the world’s largest mine. Now, it is only the world’s largest hole. It is 1,250 meters in diameter and 525 meters in depth. It opened in 1955 and is known as one of the biggest deposits of diamond in Russia. It is also the first diamond mine opened in the country. The mine is so big that the Russian government prohibits aircrafts from flying over it to avoid the dangers of being sucked in by air flowing inward.
Now, the world’s largest diamond mine is the Orapa diamond mine located in the Boteli Sub-District in Botswana. The mine is owned by Debsana, a partnership between De Beers, the largest diamond company in the world, and the government of Botswana. The Orapa mine opened in July 1971. In operation seven days a week, the Orapa mine is capable of producing 20 million tons of ore every year. Apart from the gem diamond producing facilities, the Orapa mine has pre-primary and primary schools for employees’ children, a 100-bed hospital and a game park.
Orapa may be the biggest diamond mine in the whole world, but the distinction of being the richest diamond mine belong to another Botswana diamond mine, Jwaneng. Like Orapa, Jwaneng is also operated by Debswana. The mine is the world’s richest in terms of value of recovered diamonds. It produces 9.3 million tons of kimberlite ore every year. For every ton of these stones, it produces 1.25 carats of diamond. In 2003 alone, Jwaneng has produced 14 million carats of high quality diamonds. Jwaneng is famous for its fully-automated Aquarius technology of sorting diamonds. Jwaneng is an award-winning mine and has been praised for safety and environmental compliance.
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