Technologie & Materialien,Zerspanung, Schlei

6 Diamantenkunde 1/2008Serie A visit to Mirny

The ﬁrst thing which came to my attention when I looked out of the small window of

the Alrosa air plane was an enormous crater, the famous „big hole“ of Mirny. The

crater is spiralling down to a depth that is hardly visible from above, and I learn later

that it is in the range of !"! meters. The „big hole“ is what remained of the Mir pipe,

the ﬁrst kimberlite pipe that was worked for diamonds in Yakutia, from #$!% till "&&'.

It is one of the largest pipes, both in Russia and worldwide. Technologie & Materialien,Zerspanung,Von Elisabeth Strack Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik,

The view from the top is even The Mir pipe Ekaterina Elagina and Vla- Umformtechnik,more impressive than I Holzbearbeitung,had dimir Avdeenko during the Dienstleistungen, Verbände, Management, expected from photographs. Still sleepy after a seven hours’ long Amakinskaya expedition There is a striking resemblance night flight from Moscow , I to what was then the Yakut Technologiewith & the other Materialien, „big hole“ , the miss the unique opportunity Zerspanung,ASSR. At that time, the Sowjet Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, one from Kimberley in South to take a photograph of the Union was in urgent need of Africa. The city of Kimberley, „big hole“ from above. I can industrial diamonds for its Umformtechnik,named itself after a British Holzbearbeitung, only hope that another oppor- growing steel industry and had Dienstleistungen, Technologie & Materialien, governor at the time of the tunity will present itself later. made a decision to prospect diamond discoveries in the A newspaper article comes to Zerspanung,last quarter Schleifen of the !"th centu- my mind which mentioned& Polieren, that Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, ry, has later given its name to the airzone above the pipe is the diamond-containing rock closed for helicopters as there within the pipes: kimberlite. is the danger that they get „sucked in“ by an downward The airplane is filled up to the airflow. I conclude that from last seat. When we approach the sheer size of the „big hole“ Mirny, all passengers are sud- this seems understandable. denly awake, forgetting about the narrow seating conditions Two days later I have indeed and trying to catch a glimpse an opportunity to take pho- of the famous sight. After a few tographs of the Mir pipe. Our seconds, the sight is over, and group is driven to the pipe, the plane is preparing to land which is situated just outside at Mirny airport which is situ- of Mirny, and from the loftily ated about # kilometers east constructed viewing-plat- of the city centre. The airport form, secured in the ground operates $# hours a day and is by thick steel cables, we are used not only by Alrosa’s own allowed to take a glimpse airline, Alrosa Mirny Air Enter- over the edge into the depth prise, but a few other small of the crater (Abb. !, $, %). local airlines. Besides, it is a designated emergency airfield The Mir pipe was the first for the cross-polar route bet- diamond pipe worked in the ween North America and Asia. USSR, discovered on June !%, !"&& by Yuri Khabardin, Abb. ! + $: Mir pipe (big hole) for diamonds in the region Operation of the Mir pipe star- of the Siberian platform in ted in !"&(. In March !"&(, the 7 1/2008 its Far East where kimber- first processing plant, called lite pipes with diamonds plant No. !, was brought in a were suspected to occur. dismantled state from the diamond workings in the northern Kimberlite pipes are volcanic Ural mountains, it was instal- pipes of a conical to cylindrical led within a few months by the shape , formed within !.& - $ combined efforts of all those kilometres of the surface when working in Mirny. Plant No. $ highly pressured magma from followed in July !"&+ and plant very deep mantle-derived sour- No. # in September !"&+. Plant ces (!&' to #&' km in depth) No. % was established in !"**. Abb. %: Platform on top explodes upwards. The depth By the year !"((, the hole that nights do not really get of the Mir pipe of melting makes kimberlit, had a depth of $%.& metres. dark, as we are not too far an ultramafic igneous rock, from the polar circle (only prone to hosting diamond xe- In $''!, open pit mining was about #&' kilometres away). nocrysts. It contains a number stopped and workings were of other minerals, as pyrop, finally closed down on April The small airport is the only peridot, yellow zircon and %', $''#. About !*& million gate to the outside world. chrome diopside. They are cubic metres of rock have been There are no trains going to seen as indicator minerals for removed since operations and from Mirny, and access by the presence of diamonds. In began in !"&(. At the time of car is confined to a few roads Yakutia, the minerals are mi- closing the pipe had a surface leading only to places in the Technologie & Materialien,Zerspanung, Schleifenned together with diamonds. &diameter Polieren, of !$&' metres and immediate Abrichttechnik,outskirts. The dirt a depth of &$& metres. At the road to the Internationalnaya The pipes can reach a diame- bottom, the diameter was in mine, situated !( kilometers Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Dienstleistungen,ter of a few hundred metres the range Verbände,of %!' metres. The from Mirny, is an expample Management, to one kilometer and more at length of the spiral road win- for such a road, we shall use the surface. They were formed ding down the crater is about it the next day for our visit of Technologie & Materialien, Zerspanung, Schleifen(' to !&' million years ago. &(.( kilometres. Polieren, The pipe had the underground Abrichttechnik, mining ope- Towards the surface, the kim- been worked by excavators ration. Transport by land is berlite rock suffers alteration who loaded the rock on Be- easier on snow roads in winter. Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Dienstleistungen,and turns by serpentinization laz trucks Technologiewhich delivered it & Materialien, into a bluish looking rock, to the plants. There was no When we leave the airport, named blue ground. Even blasting involved. Preparatory we get the first view of the Zerspanung, Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik,further to the surface, the worksUmformtechnik, for future underground city – is seems to be hidden Holzbearbeitung, colour changes by weathering mining have already begun as behind a scenery of factory to yellow (yellow ground). the actual depth of the pipe is buildings. They are processing about !$'' metres. There are plants, as we shall learn later. The name „Mir“ which was also plans for reworking the There is something in the air chosen for the pipe means as old tailings of the first decades which I cannot exactly descri- much as „peace“ in Russian again at the Mirny plants. be but which I would identify language. A second meaning as the smell of the north or is „world“. The words of the The history of Mirny the atmosphere of an isola- telegramm which was sent by ted place somewhere in the the expedition members to A beautiful sunny day with a north, resembling an alpine Moscow have later become nice fresh breeze is awaiting resort. We are indeed finding

famous in Russia: „Lit the us outside when we leave the ourselves at a very isolated business.info peace pipe: tobacco is excel- airplane. It is difficult to ima- place, about +'' kilometers lent“. They announced the gine that temperatures can north of Lake Baikal and +$' beginning of a multi-million- go down to minus *' degrees kilometers west of Yakutsk, dollar diamond industry. Celsius in winter. They are also the state capital. There are reported to go as high as #' no mountains, however. The Two years later, the Mir pipe degrees Celsius in summer, city has a small river, the Irel- was to become the first we consider ourselves lucky yakh, which forms part of the diamond pipe worked in the that this is apparently not yet basin of Vilyuy river. We will USSR, after a government the case in early July $''(. cross Irelyakh river a few times diamond- commission had decided in There are also no mosquitos, during the next two days. !"&* to start exploitation be- contrary to many predictions, cause first trials had delivered but instead we shall have

Fotos/Grafiken: ElisabethStrack diamonds of high grade. the pleasure of observing www. Most passengers who came ple directed by the Komsomol around in the streets seem 8 with us from Moscow are organization, and among them to make no noise, everything 1/2008 probably returning to Mirny were veterans of World War II is quiet, there is however where they normally live, they who were eager to start a new some traffic in the streets. have their families waiting life.The first settlers lived in Life seems to follow a certain for them at the airport. There tents, heated by big iron sto- pattern that was once predomi- are usually no tourists and it ves, as there were no houses. nant all over the Soviet Union. needs a special permit to visit the town. Our small group of In March !"&(, construction The nineteen fifties saw a seven people from five diffe- of the city started according swift progress. In !"&" there rent countries, accompanied to a general plan, the first were already &''' inhabi- by two Russian guides, came step of which was cutting of tants. From !"*' onwards, as participants of a pre-con- the surrounding woods in the small electric motors in ference trip to the International order to clear the territory the open pit, the industrial Gemmological Conference for the future town. The first zone and the settlement were which takes place in Moscow streets were being built with replaced by an electric power this year. During the next two felled trees and they were transmission line from Lensk. days, we will have the possibi- named Moskovskaya Street Between !"*' and !"*( the lity to get an impression of the and Leningradsky Avenue , in Vilyuyskaya hydropower sta- Yakutian diamond industry. honour of the young pioneers tion was constructed, it was coming from Moscow and the first station on Permafrost. It is about !' o’clock in the Leningrad (today St. Peters- morning when a bus brings burg). Victor L. Tikhonov was The pioneers of Mirny sur- us to the Zarnitza hotel in the the first manager, leading all mounted incredible difficul- Technologiecentre & of town. Materialien,Zerspanung, Zarnitza means works of civil and industrial ties, and it is their hard work Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, as much as „summer light- construction. A street in Mirny which explains the extraor- ning“ in Russian language, is today named after him. dinary development of the Umformtechnik,the name was given to theHolzbearbeitung, first city within only &' years from Dienstleistungen, Verbände, Management, kimberlite pipe discovered in The first loads of necessary an isolated and deserted Yakutia by Larissa Popugajewa supplies came along the Lena spot in the taiga to a modern Technologiein !"&#&. She wasMaterialien, a geologist River and via the town of Muk- Zerspanung,industrial town. Today, the Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, from St.Petersburg who later htuya (today called Lensk), people of Mirny are proud on became the „victim of her own $#' kilometers to the south of the efforts of their fathers and Umformtechnik,discovery“ as the director Holzbearbeitung, of Mirny and the nearest settle- grandfathers. When I walk Dienstleistungen, Technologie & Materialien, the Mirny city museum will ment of any size. The trucks the streets around the hotel tell us two days later, explai- could drive the supplies to Mir- the next day, I discover name Zerspanung,ning us theSchleifen tragic fate of the ny only on snow & roads in Polieren,win- plates on quite a few houses Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, woman who contributed with ter, as there was no other road. which indicate that a hero her discovery to the history of socialist labour has lived of diamonds but was not ap- The first one-storey wooden in them. Distinctions and preciated in her own time. houses were already built honours of this type were a in !"&&, followed in !"&( by means of the government to The beginnings of Mirny are two-storey stone houses built appreciate the achievements closely or rather solely related on concrete piles. Today many of those helping to create an with the already-mentioned houses have " or !' storeys. extraordinary new place. discovery of the Mir pipe in The town looks clean and well June !"&&. In late July !"&&, organized, with streets ar- The pioneers are also ho- members of the expedition ranged in a rectangular pat- noured with a monument in founded the first settlement on tern. Huge posters, reminding the municipal park, built by the banks of Irelyakh river, in of the high days of Soviet pro- the architect Evgenĳ Ermolaev the direct vicinity of the pipe. paganda, cover some of the in October !"('. It shows an At that time, the vast territory walls of the larger buildings, obelisk, $# meters high, with of western Yakutia was prac- showing elderly men in their a diamond crystal and is sur- tically uninhabited, there were suits, possibly politicians or rounded by a mosaic panel no roads and no navigable leading managers of the Alrosa showing the heroic labour rivers. In order to develop the company who is the main em- efforts of the people and the diamond industry, it became ployer in town. I observe young riches of the land. There is necessary to attract people couples with their children on another monument on Victory from all over Russia who were a playground near the hotel, square, commemorating the willing to master this severe where colourful constructions %'th anniversary of the Great part of the country. Those who invite the children for climbing. Patriotic War in !"(& and de- came were mainly young peo- The few pedestrians walking dicated to the veterans and BASIS_A4_4c_SchleifenPolieren 02.11.2007 14:19 Uhr Seite 1

9 1/2008

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Alle Infos + ¯ Teilnahmeunterlagen www.grindtec.de diamond- www. Veranstalter - AFAG Messen und Ausstellungen GmbH - Messezentrum - 86159 Augsburg - Germany - [email protected] Fachlicher Träger - FDPW Fachverband Deutscher Präzisions-Werkzeugschleifer e.V. - www.fdpw.de victims. A further monument While our bus driver gives burg which a Russian friend 10 is dedicated to the discovery us a tour of Mirny, I have presented to me in $''#. 1/2008 of diamonds by Soviet geolo- a good opportunity to ask gists, and shows a man and questions to Nicola, the in- We are directed to the second a woman geologist led by a terpreter who accompanies floor where we shall meet the local Yakutian us. I learn that most people vice-president and some of the guide on their living in Mirny cherish their managers who are responsible way through way of life. Salaries are good for operations of exploration the wilderness and include a premium. and production. The con- (Abb. #). Prices are however also rela- ference room is modern and The main tively high as all goods have to has the latest equipment. It square in the be brought in by air plane. The is obvious that we are in the city center is population is mainly Russian, headquarter of a wealthy named Lenin as is the management of the company, the office could be square after Alrosa company. This does, at situated anywhere in the the monument least on the surface, not seem world. But it is situated in of Lenin which to represent a problem to the the middle of nowhere in stands there. local Yakutians who apparently northeastern Siberia. Abb. ': Monument for the The square is accept that the leading role of geologist-discoverers flanked by the local adminis- the diamond industry in their We are allowed to ask ques- tration building on the right own, native country is played tions which Nicola, who and hotel Zarnitsa on the left by a predominantly Russian accompanies us whereever side, and it is faced by the company, as long as they have we go, translates. Questions Cultural Palace „Almaz“ (dia- secure jobs in that industry. concentrate on production Technologiemond), & built inMaterialien,Zerspanung, !"(+. It houses figures and the role of Alrosa Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, a cinema, a theatre and chan- A visit to the Alrosa on the Russian and the world ging art exhibitions. From time headquarter market. The Alrosa company Umformtechnik,to time performing artists Holzbearbeitung, are is working several mining Dienstleistungen, Verbände, Management, flown in from Moscow. On After our arrival at the Zarnit- complexes which are directed Lenin square the annual „Day za hotel we decide that the by subsidiary companies, Technologieof the& City and Materialien, the Diamond famous diamond town of Zerspanung,named Mirninskii, Aikhal- Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, Mining Industry“ is celebrated. the far east is such a unique skii, Udaschinski, Nyurbin- Mirny has an active cultural life place that we should start skii and Anabarskii GOK. Umformtechnik,today, and there are secondary Holzbearbeitung, visiting immediately. We sit Dienstleistungen, Technologie & Materialien, schools and a polytechnical down together in the hotel We learn that the answers to institute, plus a modern poly- restaurant to take a quick most of our other questions Zerspanung,clinic andSchleifen sport stadions. breakfeast but get& instead Polieren, will become evident later Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Our city tour acquainted with what people when we will actually be ex- brings us later might call „the old system“: plained and will be able to to the rather the waitresses seem to be see with our own eyes what impressive, reluctant to take our orders we were asking for: the type modern stadi- and make us adhere strictly of mining and processing em- on and sports to the existing kitchen plan. ployed, sorting and quality centre. The criteria. The next two days whole complex The head office of the Alrosa are devoted to those topics. is sponsored company, which we want to by the Alrosa visit first, is only two blocks The Alrosa company company. We away, on the corner of Lenin climp up to the street. It is an impressive mo- The Alrosa company exists highest seats dern building, surrounded by a only since !""$. The full name Abb !: The stadion of the stadi- small alley of birch trees (Abb. is Almazy Rossii-Sakha Joint on from where we can have *).The inside is as beautiful as Stock Company, it was set up a glimpse of the great open the outside. The entrance hall by a presidential decree in pit of the Mir pipe (Abb. &). is large and spacious and has February !""$. The name was a few showcases with exhibi- shortened to Alrosa in !""+. The city of Mirny has about tions of diamond-related to- The company is engaged in the #'.''' inhabitants today. pics. An enormous hour glass, exploration, mining, manu- In January $''' it received made of Siberian nephrite and facture and sale of diamonds, the first orthodox church, containing diamond dust, is it’s aim is to establish Russia opened by the Archbishop of presented in a show case. I as a primary global player Yakutsk and Lensk and named have a similar but much smal- on the diamond market. the Holy Trinity Temple. ler one in my office in Ham- quantities bought from Alrosa during the next three years. 11 1/2008 Meanwhile, Alrosa is free to sell to whatever companies in whatever countries and can even conclude sales in foreign sales offices. The total production is planned to reach a value of % billion US dollars in $'!'.

Alrosa organizes, together with the Diamond Chamber of Russia, regular auctions. Abb. (: Alrosa building in Mirny On August !, $''( the auction was for the frist In December $''* the Rus- traction sorting was done at time open to foreigners, is sian Federation held &' per the Gokhran company (who was an auction for special cent of Alrosa, the Republic of also stored reserve quanti- sizes of rough diamonds, of Sakha (Yakutia) %$ per cent, ties of diamonds), a division between !'.+' to &' carats. while + per cent were held by of the Ministry of Finance. local communes of regions in Almazjuwelir-export was re- A visit to the Internatio- Yakutia where diamonds are sponsbile for marketing. nalnaya diamond mine found, & per cent by the fund of social warranties to service- Alrosa started operations On the second day of our visit Technologie & Materialien,Zerspanung, Schleifenmen in the Russian Federal &in early Polieren, !""% and has since we drive aboutAbrichttechnik, !( kilometers government and $% per cent successfully reached inde- north of Mirny in order to visit by employes of organizations pendence from Moscow who the Internationalnaya pipe Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Dienstleistungen,of the diamond complex. The before had Verbände, wanted to gain which is operated as anManagement, un- supervising council consists more control of the Republic derground mine. The dirt road of !& persons. Alexeji Kudrin, of Sakha. Alrosa has used its to the mine is surrounded Technologie & Materialien, Zerspanung, SchleifenRussian Federation Finance &monopoly Polieren, from !""" onwards, by the characteristic Abrichttechnik, forest of Minister, was elected chair- expanding activities in produc- the taiga, mainly made up of man on August $, $''(. tion, cutting and marketing. In- spruces and larches (Abb. (). Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Dienstleistungen,vestment Technologiein exploration led to There are a few open spaces & Materialien, In $''&, diamonds worth the discovery of the Botuobins- where trees have been cut. $.+ billion US dollars were kaya Pipe in March !""# and Zerspanung, Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik,pro-duced, with a net profit of theUmformtechnik, Nyurbinskaya Pipe in !""*, The Internationalnaya pipe was Holzbearbeitung, #'' million dollars. The com- both in the new kimberlite field discovered in !"*" but resu- pany has sufficient diamond of Nakynskoye east of Mirny. med operations only in August re-serves to maintain produc- In the year $''' the subsidiary !""". Reserves are estimated tion at the current level for the Brillanty Alrosa was founded to last for the next $& to %' next &' years. It has recently for diamond cutting and po- years, and the pipe is con- started mining operations in lishing, with offices in Moscow, sidered as one of the three best the northwestern Archangelsk London, Antwerp and Israel. diamond mines in the world. region of Russia and in Angola. Abb. %: The road to Alrosa is meanwhile selling It is the only underground Internationalnaya and The predecessor of Alrosa half of its production inside mine, construction started in Intern. Building was the Yakutalmaz trust, of Russia, where a number of

incorporated in January !"&(, privately-owned cutting plants business.info after Nikita Chruschtschov have spread up besides of the had announced the discove- government companies. The ry of diamonds at the $'th remaining half can be sold to Communist Party Congress foreign buyers as there are no in !"&*. Yakutalmaz sold the longer export regulations for ﬁrst !%.''' carats of rough diamonds. The relationship diamonds in !"&" to the De with De Beers, for a long time Beers company, they had the number one buyer, had been delivered by the plant been under investigation by diamond- No. ! in Mirny in June !"&(. the European Court lately for violating anti-trust regulations While Yakutalmaz was re- and De Beers had originally

sponsible for diamond ex- said that it would limit the www. !"(* and was achieved with darkness, only lit by the tiny goes at first to a mill where it 12 help from the countries lead- lamps on our helms. The young is crushed into smaller pieces 1/2008 ing institutes. There are two guide brings us to several while material from alluvial shafts with a depth of !'*' interesting viewing points at deposits goes directly to the and $'#' metres respectively, different levels while we walk conveyor belts which lead to connected by horizontal corri- around in an oval circle that the washing plants. Before dors that are spiralling down. leads us even further down. we are allowed to enter, we We are able to see walls with go through a strict security After arrival we are at first kimberlite rock and we can control. We have to promise made to watch a film with recognize smaller horizontal not to use our cameras and security instructions before kimberlite dykes. We encoun- only one person from our we are asked to change into a ter miners at work with special group is allowed to take pho- type of overall. We are hand- machinery used for the extrac- tos. We are asked not to use ed out a security helm with tion of the diamondiferous these photos for publication. a lamp and are instructed rock and we walk around how to use it. We get gloves trucks. We do, of course, not The plant is housed in a huge in order to protect our hands see a single diamond but we building which is divided into when we are down in the mine. are able to get an overall im- several departments, accor- When our outfit is finished, pression of the organization of ding to the different methods we join a group of Yakutian an underground diamond mine used. The whole operation is mining students for going and we can see with our own supervised with modern com- down with a large type of eyes to what hardships and puter surveillance technology. hoisting machine (Abb. +). technical achievements men There are washing plants where are willing to go through for the run of the mine is washed Technologie & Materialien,Zerspanung,recovering the most splendid out to increasingly smaller Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, of gemstones. I manage to talk sizes. For the final separation a few sentences with a young grease belts are used but the Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung,miner and he allows me to pick concentrate is also transported Dienstleistungen, Verbände, Management, up a piece of salt, an accom- to x-ray fluorecent separators panying mineral in the pipe. which identify diamonds by Technologie & Materialien, Zerspanung,their x-ray fluorescence and Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, Before we drive the country screen them into special holes, road back to Mirny we have a thus separating them from Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung,look at the open pit working the surrounding pebbles. Dienstleistungen, Technologie & Materialien, of the Internationalnaya mine which is situated nearby. It For the separation of very Zerspanung, Schleifenis already worked & to a depthPolieren, small diamonds foam Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, of $+* meters but is tempo- separation is used. rarily closed as underground mining is envisaged for the The Diamond Sorting Office Abb +: On the future. The depth of proven way down into the reserves goes to !$$' meters. On the third day we have the Internationalnaya mine We get out at a depth of about opportunity to visit the central ('' metres and are eager to The Processing Plant No. ! sorting office of the Alrosa start our walking tour of nearly company. We cannot actually one kilometre in the complete We do not eat lunch at the see how the sorting is done, as cafeteria of the Internatio- visitors – due to security rea- nalnaya mine which might sons - are not allowed into the have given us more of an work rooms. We are presented, insight into the working life however, with a CVD which of diamond miners, instead explains the sorting procedure. we go back to our hotel. The afternoon is dedicated to the The Diamond Sorting Centre visit of the processing plant (DSC) was established on No. % in Mirny. We are curi- November $(, !""' with the ous to see what methods are help of the former research used for separating diamonds institute Yakutniproalmaz. The out of the kimberlite rock. work of the Centre consists of:

The loads of kimberlite ground are brought in by trucks (Abb. "). Material from the pipes Abb. $: Trucks driving the mining load to a processing plant !. Classification of raw Diamonds from the relatively %. Constant investigation of diamonds according to new Nyurbinski complex have mineralogical and physical 13 1/2008 the different origins. often a frosted appearance and features of diamonds from a green coating under which new deposits and prospected $. Sorting and expert eva- the crystals may be colourless. areas and establishing of da- luation according to size, The Aikal mining complex de- tabases for comparison with shape, colour and clarity. livers generally large crystals already existing deposits. and usually at least !' large Sorting for size is done crystals are found per year. The Sorting Centre keeps a by screens, and sizes of complete collection of dia- above %.&mm are sepa- Colours also differ for different monds, connected with the rated by weight, divided mines, the Udachnayamine history of geological explora- into !* weight groups. has a certain percentage tion work for the discovery of of brown colours and grey, kimberlite pipes in Yakutia. Shapes differ for different opaque diamonds. mines. Octahedrons with We are allowed to view the combinations of other crystal Dodecahedrons, often sorted production of several faces are apparently typical for with distorted surfaces, places of origin, all crystals both the Mir and Jubilee pipes are characteristic for the spread out on a huge table while in pipes further to the Anabarski placer mining showcase. There is a number north more rounded shapes complex. It delivers pink of extraordinary large crystals appear.The International mine and red and other colours. amoung them. This resembles delivers sharply-edged octa- of being led into the interior hedrons and macles. Udach- Classification results in of a treasury and represents Technologie & Materialien,Zerspanung, Schleifennaja delivers octahedrons &(&'' Polieren, categories. The sor- a rare and uniqueAbrichttechnik, oppor- and macles and diamonds ters receive their training at tunity. At this point, we are are generally rather smaller. the Gemmological Centre allowed to take photographs Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Dienstleistungen,of the Geological Verbände, Prospec- (Abb. !'-!*). Management, ting Academy in Moscow. Technologie & Materialien, Zerspanung, Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Dienstleistungen, Technologie & Materialien, Zerspanung, Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, die Firma Holzbearbeitung, innovativ business.info

Wendeplatten- Spitzenlos- Stanznormalien Schleifmaschinen Schleifmaschinen

Halle 1 / Stand 131 diamond-

12. - 15. März

Messe Augsburg

AGATHON AG Maschinenfabrik l 4503 SOLOTHURN SWITZERLAND www. Tel +41(0)32 617 4500 l Fax +41(0)32 617 4700 l [email protected] www.agathon.com Abb !': Diamond crystal in kimberlite Abb. #$: Diamonds are used in instruments for eye 14 surgeons 1/2008

Abb. !!: Diamond crystals from the Udachnaya pipe

Abb. #&:Yellow, green and brown diamonds Technologie & Materialien,Zerspanung, Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung, Dienstleistungen, Verbände, Management, Technologie & Materialien, Zerspanung, Schleifen & Polieren, Abrichttechnik,

Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung,Abb. #': Pyrop occurs together with diamond in kimberlite Dienstleistungen, Technologie & Materialien, Zerspanung,Abb. !$:Schleifen Diamond crystals from Aikhal & Polieren, Abrichttechnik, Umformtechnik, Holzbearbeitung,

Abb. #!: % pink diamonds

Large diamonds from Yakutia In !""! the %#!.+ carat „Free ()*+ Russia“ diamond was presen- Every year a number of large ted to Boris Yeltsin and also Elisabeth Strack diamond crystals are dis- went to the Diamond Fund. Gemmologisches Institut covered, they are oﬀered Hamburg for sale to the government- Other large diamonds are the Gerhofstr.!" owned Diamond Fund in the „&' years of Aeroﬂot“ and the $'%&# Hamburg Kremlin where some of them „Star of Yakutia“, weighing Tel. + #"-(')#'-%&$'!! are shown to the public. $%$ carats and $%".'& carats Fax: +#"-(')#'-%#%#!" each, the „Great Beginning“ [email protected] The largest diamond ever dis- with !%& carats and the www.strack-gih.de covered is the „$*th Congress „Great Bear“ with !!# carats. of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union“, it weighs %#$ carats and was found at plant No. % of the Mir pipe in !"+'.