You might be a little bit surprised to learn that the measurable reserve of diamond in the top ten diamond mines in the world is estimated to be over one billion carats. Half of the biggest diamond mines are located in Russia, while two of them are in the African country, Botswana. Below are the top three largest diamond mines in the world based on their estimated diamond reserves.
Udachny
The Udachny diamond mine, which is located in Russia’s Yakutia region, is the second largest diamond mine in the entire world when it comes to reserve size. The diamond reserve in this Russian mine is estimated to be more than 152 million carats in the year 2013. Even though Udachny mining and processing division operates this mine, it is owned by Alrosa.
The Udachny diamond mine is also one among the deepest open pit diamond mines in the world. It is reported that the amount of diamond produced in the mine in just 2011 was around 10 million carats. The underground operation in this Russian mine might continue for three more decades.
Argyle
The Argyle diamond mine, which is situated in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, is one of the biggest diamond mines in the world based on reserve size. The recoverable diamond reserve at the Argyle diamond mine was estimated to be approximately 140 million carats in the year 2012. This Australian diamond mine, which started production in 1983, is owned by Rio Tinto.
The open pit operations conducted at the Argyle diamond mine concluded recently. However, the miners at Argyle will be using underground operations in order to discover more diamonds. This will make the Argyle diamond mine the first and only block cave mine in Western Australia.
Orapa
Orapa diamond mine is the ninth largest diamond mine in the world in terms of the diamond reserve. This huge diamond mine is located in Central Botswana. The estimated diamond reserve in this open-pit diamond mine was reported to be 85.7 million carats by the end of the year 2012.
Orapa diamond mine, which started production in 1971, produced approximately 12 million carats of diamonds in the year 2012 alone; it had produced over 17 million carats of diamonds in 2006. No other diamond mine was able to meet this number in the same year.