Russia reveals shiny state secret: It’s awash in diamonds – Yahoo! News.
This is HUGE NEWS !
‘Trillions of carats’ lie below a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile diameter asteroid crater in eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem. The Russians have known about the site since the 1970s.
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- A aerial view of the 35-mile-wide Popigai Astroblem crater which contains enough diamonds to supply global markets for the next 3,000 years
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- The crater, in eastern Siberia, has been known about since the 1970s, but the Kremlin kept it a secret to exploit its already rich reserves of the precious stone
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- These diamonds, weighing over 50 carats each, were found in Russia’s Yakutia mine, which has been rich resource for the country, but nothing compared to the new one
Russia has just declassified news that will shake world gem markets to their core: the discovery of a vast new diamond field containing “trillions of carats,” enough to supply global markets for another 3,000 years.
The Soviets discovered the bonanza back in the 1970s beneath a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile diameter asteroid crater in easternSiberia known as Popigai Astroblem.
They decided to keep it secret, and not to exploit it, apparently because the USSR‘s huge diamond operations at Mirny, in Yakutia, were already producing immense profits in what was then a tightly controlled world market.
The Soviets were also producing a range of artificial diamonds for industry, into which they had invested heavily.
According to the official news agency, ITAR-Tass, the diamonds at Popigai are “twice as hard” as the usual gemstones, making them ideal for industrial and scientific uses.
The institute’s director, Nikolai Pokhilenko, told the agency that news of what’s in the new field could be enough to “overturn” global diamond markets.
