Nice diamond mine..

[Winston]

Here are some pictures I found of an open pit diamond mine in the Russian town of Mirny, 800 km (500 miles) west of Yakutsk. It's just.. I don't know, amazing that somebody would choose to mine anything this way.

The pit is 1250 m across (4100 ft), and 525 m deep (1720 ft).

[Winston]

Don't know how the next two pictures add to the sense of scale.. We know by now that it is one big hole in the ground they've got there.

Still, the truck:

[Winston]

The truck again, supposedly. Different setting.

[Winston]

From here it looks most of all like a near miss ICBM impact. Unless of course somebody was aiming for diamonds.

[Winston]

A little sceptical about this one. That "vortex" looks conveniently added on.. But it gives a good overview.

[Winston]

From above,

[Winston]

From further above,

[Winston]

So, first lesson for Mirny kids: "Always look where you're going! Keep your eyes on the road in front of you at all times."

Holy smokes.

[Flip McWho]

Kinda like the gold mine that used to be at Waihi, just bigger.

[MMC]

Anyone got a Google Earth shot?

[Koyaanisqatsi]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=mirny,+russia&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&ll=62.52325,114.027443&spn=0.116428,0.43396

Don't know what's up with the false color.

[Colonâ„¢]

The town has been taken over by aliens!

[Japher]

where did they put all the dirt?

[Zkribbler]

Although this is an amazing feat of engineering, all I can think of is whether I could hoch a lugie and hit the bottom.

[Kontiki]

Welcome to the world of large-scale mining. There are plenty of mines like that in the US, Canada, Australia, Chile and Russia.