Breaking News:

Tanker Traffic Resumes at Beleaguered Freeport LNG Terminal

Geopolitics and Inflation Threaten to Derail Booming Stock Market

  1. Home
  2. Latest Energy News

Russia's Giant Diamond Mine Could Collapse the Global Diamond Market

By Joao Peixe - Sep 19, 2012, 4:35 PM CDT

Russia has been the world's largest diamond producer for the past 3 years. Its diamond mines in Yakutia produce massive profits in a tightly controlled market. However it has just been released that the Russians have been sitting on a monolithic mine for 40 years. In the 1970s they discovered a diamond field beneath a meteorite crater which contains trillions of carats, and could supply the world with diamonds for 3,000 years.

They didn't release this information earlier in order to keep the diamond market under control, and the prices high.

Nikolai Pokhilenko, the director of the Novosibirsk Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, said that "the resources of super-hard diamonds contained in rocks of the Popigai crypto-explosion structure, are by a factor of ten bigger than the world's all known reserves. We are speaking about trillions of carats. By comparison, present-day known reserves in Yakutia are estimated at one billion carats."

RELATED: The Real Reason Behind Oil Price Rises - An Interview with James Hamilton

Back to homepage


Loading ...

« Previous: Offshore Oil Discoveries Could Lead Ireland out of Economic Woe

Next: Growing Unemployment and Civil Unrest - The Real Picture in Iran »

Joao Peixe

Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More

Related posts

Oil Prices Plummet 3% on US Inventory Build, Inflation

Cenovus Tops Earnings Forecast as Refining Jumps to Record

Ukrainian Drones Hit Major Rosneft Refinery in Russia

Most Popular

Ukrainian Drones Hit Russia’s Third-Largest Oil Refinery

Japan Loads the World’s Biggest Nuclear Reactor With Fuel

Saudi Aramco Suspends Two Oil Contractors

Traders Place Bets On $250 Oil

Gas Prices Likely to Keep Falling Ahead of Peak Driving Season

Comments

  • mgb - 23rd Sep 2012 at 11:31pm:
    lies, what makes you think all the diamonds being mined are industrial??? Maybe you should learn!
    http://atlasobscura.com/place/mirny-diamond-mine
  • lies - 20th Sep 2012 at 11:16am:
    These are industrial diamonds. They might threaten synthetic diamonds (although it means selling the diamonds at a level that can compete with synthetics and at a rate that is profitable, although this may prove difficult due to the costs involved in the mining extraction process), but they aren't going to threaten the diamond trade that is sold to consumers. Learn before you make an article.
  • Philip - 20th Sep 2012 at 4:56am:
    I think Siberia will provide the world with a lot more 'surprises' of this kind in years to come. Youi can fit 3 USAs into Siberia and the RFE with room to spare. It may well become warmer and more habitable with climate change (maybe more like Canada). With improvements in technology (including dealing with billions of mosquitos!) it could become the richest resource base on Earth. And that wealth might turn our concepts of free market economics on its head...
Leave a comment