The Udachnaya Diamond Mine, which was discovered on June 15, 1955, is located just outside the Arctic Circle in northeastern Russia’s Sakha Republic. The Udachnaya kimberlite pipe is the largest known diamond deposit in Russia.
The weather at Udachnaya, which means “lucky” in Russian, is incredibly rough: Winters last eight months and witness temperatures that drop to -60 degrees Celsius. While the brief summers can be as warm as 35 degrees Celsius, the average temperature at Udachnaya is -14C.
Mining began at Udachnaya in 1971, and since then it has been Russia’s leading diamond enterprise, run by the country’s diamond monopoly Alrosa. There are two main bodies to the mine, both of which are diamondiferous. Until mid-2011, ore at the mine was blasted and then excavated and taken to a processing plant.
A revised development plan was created in 1987 in order to reach the mine’s depths. In the first half of 2011, the mine reached its maximum open-pit depth of 600 meters, and then shifted to underground mining instead. Construction of the underground mine began in 2004, and the ultimate completion of the mine is scheduled for 2016.
The plan for the Udachnaya underground mine is to produce 4 million tons of ore per year.
