Where are the diamond deposits located?

Mining precious stones – diamonds – is a very extreme activity. Their deposits can be found in river beds, deserts, at the bottom of the oceans, the tropics and savannas of Africa, and even beyond the Arctic Circle. Until the 35th century, deposits of these valuable minerals were discovered only in Brazil, India and Borneo. A little later, diamonds were found in more than 25 countries. 80 of them are still engaged in mining these stones. But the largest producers of high-quality diamonds are Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Russia and South Africa. More than XNUMX% of the world’s diamond reserves come from them. Since diamonds are unevenly distributed on our planet, the largest accumulations of minerals are found in the countries of the Far East, Australia, India, the Arctic Circle, the Sahara and Latin America. Often, deposits of valuable minerals are concentrated in one small area, where they are mined. As for underwater diamond deposits, the largest of them have been discovered in the coastal strip stretching along the coast of South-West Africa. Coastal placers are mined by divers who use suction hoses to capture gravel, which is immediately transferred to the ship, where it is subsequently checked for the presence of diamonds. The root sources of these stones, unfortunately, have not been discovered to this day. Diamond mining is a very profitable and common activity in many countries. The leaders in the extraction of these minerals are constantly changing. In recent years, Russia has held the lead. In the middle of the last century, primary diamond deposits or, as they are also called, kimberlite pipes, were discovered in Yakutia. This gave impetus to the development of the Alrosa mining corporation, which today is the largest Russian diamond mining company. Its predicted reserves today are approximately 1/3 of the world’s total. As for the already explored reserves, they are enough to support the current level of diamond production for as long as 25 years without reducing the quality of the raw materials. Diamond reserves in the deposits owned by the Alrosa Corporation, according to data published in May 2011, according to the Russian classification amounted to 1,23 billion carats, of which 1,014 billion were already proven and 0,211 billion were probable. The main quarry where diamonds are mined is the Udachny Mining and Processing Plant. Mining work at this plant began back in 1971. Since then, for 25 years, it has been a leader in diamond mining and is one of the largest open-pit mines in the world. According to the data, in 2010 the Udachny Mining and Processing Plant accounted for 33,8% of diamond production in value terms. According to 2010 data, the corporation sold rough and rough diamonds worth $3,48 billion, and in 2011, revenue from products sold amounted to $5 billion. This figure became a record in the entire history of Alrosa. All the main enterprises of this corporation are located in Western Yakutia. Quarry work involves a very large number of different heavy equipment: excavators, loaders and dump trucks. Most often, quarries are developed to a depth of 600 meters; as soon as this is reached, diamond reserves are exhausted, and further development of the deposit becomes unprofitable. The depth of the kimberlite pipes is about 1,5 km, so in order to continue mining, workers have to build a mine. Diamond ore is extracted using combine mining and explosives. Loaders then pick up huge chunks of ore and transport them to the processing plant. Where the complex and labor-intensive process of enrichment begins. At the initial stage, the brought pieces of rock are placed in crushers, after which the ore is transferred to wet autogenous grinding mills. There, under the influence of water, the rock is crushed to a size of 0,5 m and even smaller. The next stage of ore enrichment is screening. The process got its interesting name because of the loud noise. The raw materials fall onto a huge vibrating sieve with holes of different sizes. This makes it possible to sort pieces of rock into different fractions. As soon as the raw materials are sorted, the main procedure in the process of beneficiation of diamond ore begins – X-ray luminescence separation. It applies exclusively to diamonds because they are the only mineral that can luminesce in X-rays. Crushed pieces of diamond ore move along a conveyor belt located in the separator and are irradiated with x-rays. When a diamond hits an X-ray beam, it flares up, and photocells immediately record the flare. After this, the sparkling stone is “blown out” by a stream of air into another tank. However, the air cannot separate one small pebble; a small amount of unnecessary rock is sifted out along with it. Further processing is carried out manually. Workers select diamonds and remove impurities from them, performing a “finishing process.” The raw materials are then sent to the Sorting Center, where they are separated into main groups and evaluated. At the end of this procedure, the diamonds are sent for sale. It is interesting that diamonds from different deposits have distinctive features. By looking at gems, any experienced expert will be able to tell where they were mined. However, this only applies to general characteristics. Each diamond has its own unique characteristics and no two diamonds are exactly alike. We can say that diamonds are a non-standard product, and therefore there are no organized exchange trades for them. All this greatly complicates the work of experts in sorting and evaluating precious stones. There are three main characteristics of diamonds that are taken into account: color, size and clarity. The most expensive stones are considered to be “pure water”. They have no distinct color and are completely transparent. Each characteristic has different levels. Depending on color, size and other important parameters, there are approximately 8000 possible positions of precious rough diamonds.

About diamonds

Diamond color
The most important characteristic that affects its appearance. Diamond clarity
Read about inclusions in diamonds and their purity, characteristics that affect their value. Diamond weight
Measured in carats, a small unit of measurement that corresponds to 0,2 grams. Cut quality
Cut quality is one of the most important characteristics of a diamond. Certificates
Our company can use diamonds with GIA, HRD and IGI certificates. Cut shape
The shape of a diamond determines its unique properties. 21.10 // At the beginning of the 80th century, 90% of the world diamond market belonged to the international corporation De Beers, creator of the legendary slogan “Diamonds are forever.” But the corporation could not maintain its leadership: today its place on the pedestal is occupied by the Russian company ALROSA. It accounts for about 27% of Russian and 2019% of world diamond production. In Russia, the world’s largest producer of diamonds in carats mines in two regions – the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Arkhangelsk region. In 38, ALROSA produced over 5 million carats – the lion’s share of Russian diamonds. Another 1162,5 million carats are produced by AGD Diamonds, which is developing one of the Arkhangelsk deposits. And Russia’s total resource reserves, according to JORC, amount to 22 million carats – XNUMX% of the world’s. About half of Russia’s alluvial diamonds are mined in the Yakut Arctic. In the Anabarsky ulus, which belongs to the Arctic zone of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), more than 64% of alluvial diamond deposits in Russia that have been explored and prepared for industrial development are concentrated. Seasonal diamond mining and geological exploration are carried out in two more Arctic regions of the republic – Bulunsky and Oleneksky uluses. To develop the northern deposits of Yakutia, a subsidiary of the ALROSA group, OJSC Almazy Anabara, was created in 1998. It is the largest alluvial mining company in the world. It accounts for about 5% of ALROSA’s diamonds. In 2018, the company set a record by producing the most diamonds in its entire history – 5,4 million carats. Mining is carried out by open-pit mining at seven placers – Morgogor, Istok, Kholomolokh, Ebelyakh, Gusinoye, Ruchei 41 and Kurung-Yuryakh. The most interesting stones are brought by Ebelyakh on the right tributary of the Anabar River. Only one out of 10 thousand diamonds mined in the world has its own color, and here such finds are made much more often. Thus, in the summer of 2017, in just one month, three unique fancy diamonds were mined at Ebelyakh – bright yellow, pink and purple-pink. The purest, rare pink diamond weighing 27,85 carats became the largest pink stone found in Russia and was recognized as the best find of the year according to The National Jeweler. After all, pink diamonds are incredibly rare, with only one percent of them weighing more than 10 carats. The Yakut find was used to create the “Ghost of the Rose” diamond, weighing 14,83 carats, one of the largest pink diamonds in the world. ALROSA expects to sell it in November 2020 at Sotheby’s auction for $60-65 million. However, experts believe that the transaction amount may be much higher, and then the diamond from Yakutia will become one of the most expensive in history. In August 2020, the largest colored diamond in the entire history of Russian diamond mining was mined at Ebelyakh. The weight of the rich yellow-brown stone was a record 236 carats. The second Russian region in which ALROSA operates is the Arkhangelsk region. The deposits off the coast of the White Sea are the only place in all of Europe where diamond mining is carried out. A century ago, no one even imagined that there could be kimberlite pipes on the European continent. Geologists were sure that there was only one diamond-bearing province on Russian territory – Yakutia. The first suspicions that this was not the case arose in the 1930s, when kimberlite, a diamond-bearing rock, was found during the construction of defense enterprises in Severodvinsk. But targeted searches began only in the 1980s, and soon diamonds were found in such quantities that it became clear that industrial development had to begin. As it turned out, in the Arctic part of Pomorie there are two largest industrial diamond deposits in Europe – named after M. Lomonosov in the Primorsky region and named after V. Grib in the Mezensky region. These two deposits, like all other known kimberlite pipes in the region – and there are about 70 of them – belong to the Arkhangelsk diamondiferous province. Its total diamond reserves account for 21,4% of the total Russian reserves. The first deposit to be discovered was named after a native of Pomerania, Mikhail Lomonosov. It consists of 6 kimberlite pipes with total resources of more than 115 million carats of rough diamonds. The pipes stretched out in a chain almost 10 km long off the coast of the White Sea, a hundred km from Arkhangelsk. In September 2003, stripping work began on the Arkhangelskaya kimberlite pipe. And industrial diamond mining began in June 2005 with the commissioning of the first stage of the Lomonosov Mining and Processing Plant. Today, the Severalmaz company, which is part of the ALROSA group, produces about 4,2 million carats of diamonds per year from the deposit. It is planned to mine diamonds at the Lomonosov deposit at least until 2043. The reserves in the Karpinsky-1 and Arkhangelsk pipes will last until 2035. Then the work will move 5-6 km to the north, where the pipes named after. Lomonosov and Pionerskaya. Mining is carried out in an open way, and the dimensions of two huge quarries are already measured in hundreds of meters. Thus, the diameter of the quarry at the Arkhangelskaya pipe exceeded a kilometer, and the depth – 200 meters. After all, to extract 1 carat of diamonds, you have to process about a ton of kimberlite. Huge excavators load ore onto dump trucks, each carrying one hundred tons at a time. And per hour, 450 tons of ore enter the processing plant. The plant annually processes more than 4 million tons of diamond-containing ore and extracts about 2 kg of diamonds per day. The share of Lomonosovsky GOK in the total diamond production of the Alrosa group is about 7%. 30 km from the Lomonosov deposit there is a deposit named after. V. Grib. It was discovered later, in 1996, and was named in honor of Vladimir Grib, the former chief geologist of Arkhangelskgeoldobycha OJSC. This field ranks fourth in terms of reserves in Russia and seventh in the world. There is only one kimberlite pipe, but its approximate reserves are estimated at 100 million carats. Of these, 58,4 million carats are expected to be mined by open pit mining, and the rest by underground mining. Mining is carried out by the company AGD Diamonds, the successor of JSC Arkhangelskgeoldobycha. Unique diamonds are also often found among Arkhangelsk diamonds. The first registered diamond was extracted on June 26, 2009 from the ore of the Arkhangelskaya pipe. The stone weighing 30,61 carats was named “425th anniversary of Arkhangelsk”, since it was mined on the eve of the anniversary of the capital of Pomorie. Since then, the number of personalized stones has grown into hundreds. In July 2019, at the field named after. V. Grib found a diamond weighing 222,09 carats. It became the largest in the history of diamond mining in the region and the largest diamond found in Europe. After the pipes are scooped to the bottom, the pumps of the water-reducing wells will be turned off and lakes 300-500 meters deep with the purest water will appear in place of the giant quarries. And the tailings ponds, which collect enrichment waste – mainly clay and sand – will be overgrown with forests. There will be no traces of the fact that the first European diamonds were once mined here. Infrastructure A resident of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation is dynamically developing the infrastructure of the Bolshoy Vudyavr ski resort in the Khibiny Mountains