ALROSA ’ S UDACHNY MINE A DIAMOND STORY
Today , the Udachny open-pit encompasses 1,600 meters by 2,000 meters on the surface and 640 meters in depth . The length of the quarry totals 10 kilometers and takes trucks more than 30 minutes to reach the bottom .
“ Udachny boggles the mind ,” Andrei Zharkov , President of ALROSA said at the ceremony dedicated to the closure of the open-pit mine . “ It is a true example of engineering and mining art . The mine lives up to its name . It is unique on a global scale by volume of diamonds and ore mined , by dimensions and ore body structure .”
‘ We discovered the Udachnaya pipe just in one day , in a matter of one hour and a half . This is why we named it that way ( Udachnaya ) because with other diamond pipes everything was much more complicated ’
Zharkov said the closure of the open-pit operation represents an important milestone in the history of the company . “ We feel confident about the future . The Udachny underground mine successfully ramps up capacity and its indicative planning horizon is 50 years ,” Zharkov said .
The next chapter With underground operations currently in progress , the story of the Udachnaya pipe has just begun . According to ALROSA , the reserves of Udachnaya have been explored to a depth of about 1,400 meters and there are still 800 meters for underground mining . This equates to roughly 150 million tons of ore , which is expected
The reserves of Udachnaya have been explored to a depth of about 1,400 meters
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