The Mir Mine also known as Mirny Mine is a past open pit diamond mine, now not active, situated in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The mine is 525 meters ( 1 ,722 ft ) deep ( 4th in the world ) and also has a diameter of 1 ,200 m ( 3,900 ft ), which is the second biggest excavated hole on the planet , after Bingham Canyon Mine . The airspace above the mine is blocked for helicopters resulting from incidents through which they were sucked in by the downward air flow.
The diamond-bearing deposit was found out on June 13, 1955 by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They discovered traces of volcanic rock kimberlite which are usually in connection with diamonds. This discovering was the first achievements in the seek for kimberlite in Russia, after a number of unsuccessful expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s. With this breakthrough discovery, in 1957 Khabardin received the Lenin Prize, which was certainly one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union.
Via: wikipedia.org
