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The Mir mine (, ; ), also called the Mirny mine, is an open pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Sakha Republic, in the region of eastern Russia. The mine is more than 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep (4th in the world), has a diameter of 1,200 m (3,900 ft), English version and is one of the largest excavated holes in the world.
Open-pit mining began in 1957 and was discontinued in 2001. Since 2009, it has been active as an underground diamond mine.
In the 1960s, the mine was producing of diamond per year, of which a relatively high fraction (20%) were of gem quality. The upper layers of the mine (down to ) had very high diamond contents of per tonne of ore, with a relatively high ratio of gems to industrial stones. The yield decreased to about per tonne and the production rate slowed to per year near the pit bottom. The largest diamond of the mine was found on 23 December 1980; it weighed and was named "26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" (). The mine operation was interrupted in the 1990s at a depth of after the pit bottom became flooded, but resumed later. English version
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. 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 thick. After underground operations began, the project had a mine life estimate of 27 years, based on a drilling exploration program to a depth of . Production ceased in 2001, 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.
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.
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