June 11th, 2014: Cold Hard Diamonds

[xoxoxoBruce]

City of Peace - diamond "capital" of Russia, located in Yakutia (Sakha) Yakutsk.
In the mid-50s rich primary diamond deposits were discovered in Yakutia, where so far they’ve found around 1500 kimberlite pipes.
Development of deposits is a Russian company "ALROSA", which produces 99% of diamonds in Russia and more than a quarter of the world's output. Yakutia’s population is about 35,000 people, of which about 80% work in businesses related to the group of companies "ALROSA".



From 1957 to 2001 the deposit produced diamonds which were valued at U.S. $17 billion, from about 350 million m3 of rock removed.
Over the years the quarry has expanded so that the dump trucks now travel 8 km along the spiral road from the bottom to the surface.

The website is in Russian, but there's ton of pictures, not only the area, but the mining and diamond processing operations

Of course being, "far out, man", most everything those 35000 people need, including most of the food, plus everything the mine and businesses need, is flown in.