Russian Yakutsk Diamonds

It has been reported that the new Diamond fields of Yakutia, in the U.S.S.R., are more important even than those of South Africa and Congo combined, but this claim has neither been confirmed nor denied. Until recently, Russia had a minor source of Diamond gemstones in the Ural Mountains, but in the course of a whole century (1850-1950) only a handful of Diamonds were picked up, a mere few hundred carats in all, a matter of academic geological interest rather than of com­mercial significance. After the Revolution, the Soviet Govern­ment instituted geological survey searches for Diamond in the Urals; being cut off from world supplies, it realised the stra­tegic importance of indigenous sources. Several alluvial de­posits were indeed located. Mining was begun just before Russia became involved in the war with Nazi Germany, but the output was far from sufficient for the rapidly expanding needs for the massive industrialisation developing. Industrial Diamonds became a burning necessity.

Then the very able and energetic Russian geologists shrewdly noticed a resemblance between some geological formations in Siberia to those of the diamondiferous regions of South Africa. The search for Diamond was therefore switched from the Urals to all the river-beds in Siberia, which, it so happens, empty into the Arctic Ocean. By 1949 some Diamonds were found in the basin of the Vilyia River in Yakutsk, and a concentrated hunt was on to locate the original pipes. The conditions of the terrain were formidably difficult. At first there were no communications other than by air. Groups of geologists were parachuted down into selected regions for searching. In 1954, a group of four, led by a woman, L. Papugayeva, were dropped, in summer, in what was then a mosquito-ridden swamp and what was later in the long Siberian winter to be a frozen waste, at a point 600 miles from the nearest village. The group discovered a true kimber­lite Diamond-bearing pipe.

Within two years, by 1956, over 40 Diamond-bearing pipes were located and, according to published reports, since then the number has increased to 400. (Compare this with the six main pipes of South Africa!) Yet almost all were located in very inhospitable and inaccessible regions. There was con­siderable speculation in the world as to whether in fact the reported findings could be exploited practicably. One thing seemed certain, if they were even only partially exploited, then Russia had once and for all solved its own strategic problem about Diamond required for technological use.

The Soviet authorities were not deterred by the difficulties. They concentrated first on one very rich pipe named Mir, some 160 miles from a port on the River Lena. A new town, housing 30 000, has been built and a road driven through to it. Rumour had it that in the initial installation electric power was supplied from an atomic-energy power plant transported there in sections by heavy tractors. This pipe is large, some 250 yards across. The Diamond content must be considerable, and from reports published the concentration is four carats per ton, which is high but not unduly different from that of the best mines elsewhere.

The Soviet Government has maintained considerable secrecy about the extent of the U.S.S.R. Diamond output. It seems certainly large enough to have produced a surplus-to home industrial needs, for the surplus is being sold on the world market. It is claimed that 20% of the Diamonds are of gem quality, and amongst these have been found three big stones of weights 57, 67 and 69½ carats.