Rumors about the presence of precious stones on the territory of Yakutia and the neighboring western lands began to appear at the beginning of the 19th century.
After the civil war, teacher Petr Starovatov met an old man in Kempendyai, who told that two years ago he found a shiny stone the size of a match head on one of the local rivers and sold it to a merchant, who gave a sack of cereal, two bottles of vodka and five bags of tea. Later, another person told him that he had found precious stones on the banks of the Chona and Kempendijka rivers.
Purposeful searches for diamonds on the territory of the Siberian platform began for the first time in 1947-1948 along the Nizhnyaya and Podkamennaya Tunguska rivers. In the fall of 1948, a group of geologists led by G. Fanstein began prospecting work on the Chona and Vilyui rivers and on August 7, 1949, they found the first diamond on a sand spit called Sokolina, and further finds of more than 20 crystals revealed a diamond-bearing placer here. As a result of prospecting work in 1950-1953, several diamond-bearing placers were discovered in Yakutia.
In August 1953, geological party No. 132 of the Amakinskaya expedition found the first diamond on the Malaya Botuobia river. On August 21 of the following year, 1954, geologist Larisa Popugaeva and worker Fedor Belikov discovered the first kimberlite pipe in the USSR and named it Zarnitsa.
On June 3, 1955, a geological party with geologists Yekaterina Elagina, Yuri Khabardin, Viktor Avdeenko and several workers discovered a diamond-bearing pipe, which turned out to be the largest with the richest diamond content. They called it "Peace" and sent the following telegram to their superiors: "They lit a pipe of peace, excellent tobacco …".
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In the same year, other diamond-bearing pipes were discovered in Yakutia, including Udachnaya, Marshrutnaya, and Sytykanskaya. 1955 was a very good year for geologists. Fifteen primary diamond deposits were discovered, as well as several industrial diamond placers. The search for diamonds continued, and by 1959, 120 kimberlite pipes were registered in Yakutia.
The Mir pipe is located closer to the main transport artery of Yakutia - the Lena River than the Udachnaya, Sytykanskaya, Zarnitsa pipes, so its exploration began immediately after its opening. In 1959, stripping work began at the Mir open pit. A year later, the first stationary enrichment plant was launched and the country received the first industrial diamonds from the Mir pipe. In February 1959, equipment and cargo began to be transported to Mirny along the Ust-Kut - Mukhtuya (Lensk) winter road. In the same year, the USSR sold the first batch of 13,000 carats of Yakut diamonds on the world market.
Processing plant # 3 was put into production on October 21, 1966. This factory operates to this day and for many years was the largest.
Diamond mining in Yakutia is a very difficult business because of the permafrost and underground mineralized waters. The Mir quarry is a good illustration of such conditions.
The Mir diamond pipe has the following parameters:
- Depth - 450 m.
- The outer diameter is 100-1200 m.
- Bottom diameter - 310 - 160 m.
- The total volume of ore recovered is 165 million cubic meters. m
- The inflow of underground mineralized waters is 150 cubic meters. m / hour
- The length of the spiral road from the surface to the bottom of the quarry is 7.7 km
- The design depth of open pit mining is 525 m.
- The explored depth of the ore body is up to 1200 m.
By 2001, Mir had become too deep and dangerous for workers. It was decided to stop mining diamonds by the open-cut method. Today it is being conducted using the mine method. The quarry itself has now been transformed into a local landmark. An observation deck and a memorial sign are installed above it. The mine is mothballed for the preparation of underground mining of deeper horizons - since it is explored that the depth of the diamonds in Mir is more than a kilometer.
Mirny is a city of diamond miners. This is probably why it attracts the close attention of many business people around the world today. Discovered by geologists in the summer of 1955, the Mir diamond-bearing pipe gave its name to a workers' settlement that grew up in the untouched taiga and became a city three and a half years later.
Over the past five decades, the small tent camp has become a modern industrial city with nine-storey comfortable houses and asphalt roads; and the Yakutalmaz trust, which took the first steps in the development of a new business for Russia - diamond mining - has become a well-known joint-stock company ALROSA, which produces diamonds not only in the Republic of Sakha, but also far beyond its borders, a business partner of a transnational company De Beers.
How distant June 55 seems today, when the already historic telegram with the text “We lit the pipe of Peace. Excellent tobacco”served as the starting point for the development of our city with the most peaceful name in the world. In 1956, the industrial operation of the tube began. On May 1, 2001, open pit mining was completed at the Mir pipe and a huge crater in the cold Yakut land became, perhaps, the most impressive sight of the city of diamond miners.
For 44 years, 170 million cubic meters of rock mass have been removed from the harsh Yakut depths. Day after day the quarry deepened, in recent years the hard workers - BelAZ, exporting diamond-bearing ore for processing, descended along the “Mirny serpentine” to more than half a kilometer depth. The one-way route was 7.5 kilometers.
Today, the construction of the Mir underground mine continues, since the explored depth of the ore body is 1 kilometer 200 meters.
Mirny is home to 39.5 thousand inhabitants, and the population of Mirny district is more than 85.5 thousand. The area of the Mirninsky district is impressive - 165.8 thousand square kilometers. The district includes such settlements as the city of Udachny, the villages of Aikhal, Chernyshevsky, Svetly, Almazny, the villages of Arylakh, Tas-Yuryakh, Syuldyukar.
Inhabitants of the last three are mainly engaged in agriculture; in addition, an oil refinery is being built in Tas-Yuryakh. Chernyshevsky is a village of power engineers, where the Vilyuisk HPP-1 and HPP-2 are located. In the settlement of hydro-builders Svetly, the third stage of the hydroelectric power station on Vilyui was commissioned. In Udachny and Aikhal, two large mining and processing plants are located at diamond deposits.
During the navigation period, part of the cargo for the northerners is delivered by water to Lensk, located 240 kilometers from Mirny, then transported by cars. But the main mode of transport is the plane. Without aviation in the North - nowhere, it serves to transport not only passengers, but also most of the goods. The runway of the Mirny airport can accommodate such transport giants as the Il-76 and Ruslan.
What is there in Mirny today? Two diamond processing factories, an airport, a four-story hotel, 10 restaurants, bars and cafes, 2 museums and 2 swimming pools, a city park and a stadium, 3 libraries. There is an art school, where children learn music and visual arts, and a small art gallery. There is a modern Palace of Culture, where many Mirny collectives are engaged, many of them are well known outside the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
The intellectual potential of Mirny has always been quite high for a provincial town. Probably, the fact is that even in the first years of the development of this region, extraordinary and interesting people came here. And the main type of activity required certain "levels", because the diamond mining industry in Russia in those years as such did not exist, and a new business always requires advanced thinking and views. Residents of Novosibirsk and Riga, Muscovites and Leningraders, residents of central cities with large scientific centers came here to live and work. This affected both the rapid development of production and the cultural life of the city.
The Yakutniproalmaz Research Institute has existed in Mirny for many years.
In March 1994, a branch of the Yakutsk State University named after M. K. Ammosov. In June 1999, by decree of the President of the Republic, the Mirny branch was transformed into the Polytechnic Institute.
The history of the district newspaper Mirninsky Rabochiy counts almost four and a half decades. The newspaper is not the only mass medium: there is also the Almazny Krai television and radio company. The city has its own poets and artists, the literary association "Kimberlite" and the club "Exlibris".
Peaceful lives his own life. Experiencing the same difficulties as the whole country, rejoicing in success and struggling with difficulties. And, of course, the main wealth of the city is not diamonds, but people. Because people in the North are simply wonderful - hospitable and cordial, able to come to the rescue in time and lend their shoulders in difficult times. And talking about this, without exaggeration, to a special people can take a long time.
The Mir open pit is also famous for the fact that strong water streams with manifestations of salt, oil and gas "break out" from its crevices, which is undoubtedly dangerous for mining operations. That is why, the system of ore mining with a collapse, for which representatives of the Moscow State Mining University so advocated, was rejected. Apparently, they were haunted by the history of the "meteoric rise" of the famous quarry "Premier" (South Africa), which switched to underground mining with a collapse. The absurd comparison of diamond deposits in the south of the African continent and the northeast of Russia has suffered a crushing fiasco, Moscow apologists of not only unpromising, but also dangerous ideas were left with nothing. Specialists and scientists of the Yakutniproalmaz and Gipronikel institutes defended their adamant position,development methods with full backfilling of the worked-out space.
Undoubtedly, one of the most important directions - the project "Dry conservation" of the open pit "Mir", developed by the Institute "Yakutniproalmaz", was designed to secure underground mining from the strongest water breakthroughs. The joint efforts of the Mirny GOK and the UKS of ALROSA contributed to the speedy resolution of the "sickest" problem - the water-bearing problem.
In parallel with these works, the Mirny mine construction department (Head Konstantin Plokhan) carried out the sinking of the drainage adit. The mine builders showed great courage in the face of increased danger of water swoops and rock instability. In subsequent years, the Almaz-Antarex enterprise drilled four drainage wells from the side of the Mir open pit. According to the work scheme, powerful pumps were lowered into the wells, which are designed to pump out brine water, which is extremely undesirable for underground operations. The pumps of the German company "Ritz" were installed, pumping out water from the bottom of the open pit "MIR". And in 2004 MGOK was already finalizing the remaining volumes under the Dry Conservation project.
Concerning the topic of new methods, I would like to touch upon the topic of penetration in a special way. According to the classical scheme, special methods of shaft sinking (freezing or plugging with various mixtures) are used for large water inflows, unstable or fractured rocks. All special methods can be divided into groups: fencing the bottom of the wellbore from unstable rocks and water with special lining and driving under compressed air, temporary or permanent isolation of water (artificial freezing of rocks, plugging by injection through special wells under pressure of cement or clay cement mortar, chemical strengthening soils, artificial lowering of the groundwater level and drilling of shafts). In this case, freezing columns up to 540 m deep were drilled around the shaft and with their help a dense ice wall was created,designed to protect the barrel from water, oil. At present, the cage shaft is more than 1 km deep, and the skip shaft has the same depth.
In any case, the problematic issue of ensuring the safety of the mine is still in my head. Therefore, during the construction of the Mir mine, great attention was paid to the operation of the freezing station (Equipment of the Danish company York) so that it would operate according to the design regime. Without this equipment and freezing of the ground, it was impossible to ensure the safety of the subway. Thus, seven years have passed since the beginning of the construction of the underground mine, associated with a host of production problems, rush jobs, and noisy operational headquarters. A lot of effort was spent on driving the cage and skip shafts with fastening of tubing, reinforcement, installation of buildings for lifting machines of both shafts, commissioning of the transport gallery and the main fan installation. The objects of the surface complex of the MIR mine were carefully and systematically erected,on which the livelihoods of the mine directly depend. Several years ago, work began on the construction of the first horizons.
In 2008, the underground mine commissioned a skip shaft complex, skip hoisting machines, two 7-cubic-meter skips, and a cage for transporting people and lowering goods. From February to August 2008, commissioning work was completed at the main fan unit, which performs the most important function - it provides ventilation of underground mine workings. At the end of December 2008, the mining and capital works section No. 8, headed by A. Velichko and the foreman A. Ozol, carried out the sinking of the conveyor cross-cut, went to the diamond pipe. The author of these lines, under the thickness of the earth 650 meters, 150 meters from the bottom of the famous MIR quarry on the horizon-310, was able to touch the cherished ore body. In 2009, the mine builders achieved a serious task - connecting between -210m and -310m horizons,which made it possible to deliver goods to all layer races of the first operational block of the subway. Secondly, it ensures reliable ventilation of the mine. By the way, it must be said that the first operational block was timely prepared for mining operations or, in terms of the miners' term, a stopover. In March 2009, an important operation was completed - the thrusting of the head structure to accommodate the lifting unit, the function of which is to lower workers to underground horizons, deliver materials, equipment, and also release rocks. In the spring of 2009, commissioning began. The Mir mine was put into operation in 2009.that the first production unit was timely prepared for mining operations or, in the mining term, a stopover. In March 2009, an important operation was completed - the thrusting of the head structure to accommodate the lifting unit, the function of which is to lower workers to underground horizons, deliver materials, equipment, and also release rocks. In the spring of 2009, commissioning began. The Mir mine was put into operation in 2009.that the first production unit was timely prepared for mining operations or, in the mining term, a stopover. In March 2009, an important operation was completed - the thrusting of the head structure to accommodate the lifting unit, the function of which is to lower workers to underground horizons, deliver materials, equipment, and also release rocks. In the spring of 2009, commissioning began. The Mir mine was put into operation in 2009.
August 21, 2009 will be remembered as a significant date in the modern history of diamond mining: Mirny pompously celebrated the launch of the first stage of the MIR underground mine. This is the crown of many years of work that significantly strengthens the position of OJSC ALROSA in all aspects. The MIR underground mine has become a powerful production unit of ALROSA, capable of producing 1 million tons of diamond ore. Now it's time to finish the construction of the filling complex. Much will depend on the progress of affairs in its construction and equipment.
