An overall view of Yakutia's diamond mining !

Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

The former independent Sowjet Republic of Yakutia is called Republic of Sakha since September 1990. Because of the fact that it is situated in northern regions and because of the extreme climatic conditions this area is called "Siberia in square". Yakutia (the name results from the people of the Yakutens living here) is situated in the northeast of the Russian Federation (RF). Politically the republic is a member of the RF. Yakutia makes up a third of Siberia, if you express it in figures, the Republic of Yakutia has about 3 mio. square kilometers of size.

Population

Only one million inhabitants are living here, most of them are Russians, Yakutens and Ukrainians. Additionally there are some small peoples like the Ewenkens, the Ewenens and the Tschukshens. Most of the small peoples only have some hundred members.

Climate

The climate is strictly continental. The winter time is extremely cold (under -60 degrees Celsius) and in the summer the temperature can climb up to +40 degrees Celsius. The summer ist very short. Even the large rivers are free of ice for only five to six months. The arctic tundra is especially exotic: In the summer the sun does not go down, in the winter time there is the dark polar night for months.

Geography

Geographically seen Yakutia is a part of Eastern Siberia. Eastern Siberia is the largest region of the Russian Federation. There are only a few people living in that area. In Yakutia just a small share of all the mineral resources has been found, yet, for example raw coal, ore and gold. The Russian Federation's largest and by that most important deposits of gold are situated in this part of Siberia.

Diamonds

In the regions of Mirnij, Udatschnij and Ajchal diamonds are produced. The production is one of the world's most important ones - concerning quality and quantity. Russia's average production of jeweller diamonds between 1991 and 1994 was 13 mio. carats per year (99 percent of them were extracted in Sakha/Yakutia; 1 carat = 0.2 grammes). This means a share of 17.7 % of the world's production. By that Russia (more exactly the Republic of Sakha) was on the fourth place among all countries producing diamonds.

The Mirnij-pipe has a diameter of 300 metres and reaches a depth of 1400 metres. The crater in which the production goes on has a diameter of 1100 metres and reaches a depth of about 525 metres. The Udatschnij crater - today it is the best one concerning diamond production in Yakutia - has a diameter of 2000 metres and is 500 metres deep. Even because of the winter and temperatures down to -68 degrees Celsius in the craters the production is not interrupted. Based on the actual technology, the finish of today's opencast mining can be foreseen, yet: The Mirnij crater cannot go deeper then 500 and the Udatschnij crater deeper then 600 metres. After that another method will have to be used: from a vertical shaft roadways will have to be built on different levels in order to reach and finally exploit the diamond pipe. In the Mirnij region the method of production will have to be changed about 2010 and in the Udatschnij region about 2015. It is estimated that the diamond production in Yakutia can be continued for the next 40 to 50 years.

About the author and literature sources

Eduard Dorn                                                                             Moscow, 07.04.2004

Eduard Dorn
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 (The German text was written by Eduard Dorn, translation by the webmaster).

 Literature

 Kirillin, A. D. (1999) Mirovoj rinok almazov (The world's diamond market). Moskva.

 Wein, Norbert (1999) Sibirien. Gotha.