The world’s greatest diamond mines!

Each and every beautiful dazzling diamond comes from somewhere; each one has a history and a place of origin. Certain terrains are home to the most fruitful mines in which diamonds, both coloured and clear, can be discovered.  Mines are predominantly located in African countries, South American countries, India, Canada or Australia.

Here are a few of the world’s most impressive diamond mines which have produced some of the most exquisite sparklers!

The Catoca mine, Angola

This is boastfully the 4th largest diamond mine in the world, located in Angola, South-Central Africa. The mine sits on a kimberlite pipe and is owned by several international mining interests from Angola, Russia and Brazil.

In 2000 Catoca reached a production of 1.8 million carats and 2.6 million carats in 2001. Managers of the mine have been progressively expanding its capacity in a bid to successfully extract a target of 5 million carats in 2005.

The diamonds unearthed at Catoca maintain an average value of $75 to $100 (£48 - £64) per carat. The impressively sized mine contains estimated reserves of up to 60 million carats!

Jwaneng mine, Botswana

The Jwaneng mine in South-Central Botswana, Africa, is arguably the richest diamond mine in the world.  This mine is aptly named “a place of small stones” (‘Jwaneng’) and is situated on the edge of the Kgalagadi desert, 160 km south west of Gaborone.

The pipe that runs under the Jwaneng site was discovered by explorers from mining giant De Beers in 1972.  Six years later, the Government of Botswana and De Beers (a partnership known as Debswana) signed an agreement over the establishment of the mine and the site was made operational on 14th August 1982.

To highlight the significance of the Jwaneng Mine; it contributes 60 to 70% of Debswana’s total earnings and is therefore the richest diamond mine in the world.  2008 saw Jwaneng produce 13.7 million carats from 15.7 million tonnes of ore and anually production waivers between around 12.5 to 15 million carats.

Mir Mine, Russia

‘Mir’, meaning ‘”peace” is an open pit diamond mine and is one of the oldest in the region, located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The mine measures 1,722 ft in depth, 3,900 ft in diameter and is therefore the 2nd largest excavated hole in existence. Machines, structures and workers at this mine have to withstand extreme, harsh conditions throughout the winter months.  To prove just how huge this mine is; helicopters are no longer permitted to use the air space above the hole after some were pulled in by the downward airflow in the past.

Soviet geologists founded Mir on 13th June 1955 during the Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR.  Their discovery of traces of volcanic rock, kimberlite, was the first successful find of diamond-associated rock within Russia despite numerous failed attempts.

In the 1960s the mine produced 10 million carats of diamond per year. It was susceptible to flooding and freezing in the past and so the Russians decided replace the use of water during the ore processing with dry crushing techniques.

The Mir mine was the first and largest diamond mine in the Soviet Union and was in surface operation until 2001.  The mine is now powered by Alrosa, the largest diamond producing company in Russia, with 3600 employees.  To extend production beyond surface discovery, construction of an underground tunnel network began which is expected to unearth diamonds for a further 7 years.

Ekati Mine, Canada

The Ekati and Diavik mines are located on Lac de Gras in the expansive Arctic wilderness of Canada's Northwest Territories. The Ekati diamond mine is Canada's premier diamond mining operation.   Discovered by the prospector Chuck Fipke in 1991, the 45 to 62 million year-old kimberlite pipes were named ‘Ekati’ which means "Caribou Fat Lake" in the language native to the Dog-Rib Indians of the Northwest Territories. Operations on the site started on 14th October 1998 and since then, it has produced 3 million carats of rough diamonds on average annually.

Every diamond from the Ekati Mine has the Ekati logo and a unique serial number laser-engraved on its girdle in order to denote its origin and authenticity.

Golconda Mine, India

With the exception of the active mine in Madhya Pradesh, the majority of India’s diamond mines have depleted since they were better suited to surface stripping methods which had a shorter lifespan.  The most prolific area for mining in India was in Golconda which yielded some of the world’s most famous diamonds including the Koh-I-noor Diamond, the Hope Diamond, the Regent Diamond, the Florentine Diamond and the Sancy Diamond.

India's most precious diamonds were known as the "diamonds of Golconda” and the term "Golconda diamond" is still used today as a description of very high quality, rare and transparent diamonds.

Argyle Mine, Australia

This is mine located in the East Kimberley region in remote Western Australia and is currently in transition from an open pit to an underground mine.  It produces the most diamonds in the world by volume but does not lead on value since as it has a low proportion of gem-quality diamonds. Notably it was the first successful commercial diamond mine to exploit a volcanic pipe of lamproite, rather than the usual kimberlite.

The Argyle mine is owned by the diversified mining company Rio Tinto Group and sources over 90% of the world’s pink diamonds which means that its treasures are extremely rare and in demand.  It also produces a big proportion of other naturally coloured diamonds, like champagne, cognac and rare blue diamonds.