Holes Diamond Engagement Rings Come From

I never thought I would, but I am finally getting married. Not because I couldn”t find someone, I just needed to find someone who shared my World of Warcraft habit. Anyway, I didn”t realize that finding a diamond engagement ring would be such a big deal. Pardon me, but I find the idea of choosing a piece of female jewelry the most boring thing this side of a medically induced coma.

I mean c”mon, what”s a diamond anyway? It”s just a piece of carbon, compressed deep inside the core of the Earth and the hardest thing known to man. But when I say it like that it sounds kinda cool.

But listen, it”s not just movies that make diamonds interesting, the way they get diamonds out of the ground is also really cool.

Huge volcanic action pushes the precious stones up to the surface of the Earth in what are called Kmberlite pipes. All you have to do then is rip up the ground and dig them out. This means huge open cast mining techniques are used leaving massive, open wounds. As if the Planet developed a huge zit burst by mining and left as an everlasting scar.

Coordinates: 64°42′49″N 110°37′10″W

Google Map of Ekati diamond mine:

Googlemaps
Official Ekati Diamond Mine Site

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekati_Diamond_Mine

This huge hole in the ground is so big helicopters have been banned from flying over it because of the down draft sucking down aircraft.
The hole is 1,200 meters across and over 500 meters deep. It is in Siberia and is absolutely huge, notice the contrast of the buildings to the hole.
It takes the massive trucks hours to reach the top on the hole, hauling 200 tonnes at a time.

BBC Postcards from Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_Mine

Google Map of Kimberly diamond mine:

Googlemaps

Kimberly mine is where Cecil Rhodes, the man after which Rhodesia was named (later to become Zimbabwe) made his fortune. It is the biggest hand dug hole in the world, it”s depth being over 1,000 metres.

The mine has given up over 3 tonnes of diamonds and finally closed in 1914.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape

Googlemaps

The Diavik diamond mine has produced 8 million carats or about 1,600kg (3,500 lb) since production commenced in January 2003

Coordinates: 64°29′46″N 110°16′24″W

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diavik_Diamond_MineOffical site of the Diavik Diamond Mine

Google Map of Argyle diamond mine:

Googlemaps

The Argyle mine is one of the biggest in the world, claiming to produce a quarter of the world”s natural diamonds.

Since the mine opened, over 700 million carats of diamonds have been recovered

http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/argyle/

Image source

Infomine Argyle mine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyle_diamond_mine