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Russia Reveals Vast Diamond Source Under 62-Mile-Wide Asteroid Crater Which Could Supply World Markets For Next 3,000 Years

Monday, September 17, 2012 13:43
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‘We are speaking about trillions of carats’: Russia reveals vast diamond source under 62-MILE-WIDE asteroid crater which could supply world markets for next 3,000 years

  • Supply under 35m-year-old impact zone 10 times bigger than global reserves
  • Kremlin discovered the site in the 1970s, but kept it a secret until now to exploit tightly controlled market
  • Diamonds at Popigai Astroblem in eastern Siberia ‘twice as hard’ as normal
  • Will make them ideal for high-precision scientific instruments and industry
 

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED:12:21 EST, 17 September 2012| UPDATED:12:39 EST, 17 September

Russia is about to start tapping into a huge source of diamonds that could supply the world market for the next 3,000 years.

Scientists estimate there are ‘trillions of carats’ lying beneath a 35million-year-old asteroid crater in Siberia – more than ten times the global stockpile.

The Kremlin has known about the reserves under the 62-mile-wide impact zone since the 1970s.

But it has kept it a secret until now because it was already reaping big profits in what back then was a heavily controlled market.

 
Hidden treasures: 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

Hidden treasures: 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

 

 
In the money: 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

In the money: 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

The Soviets had also been producing various artificial diamonds for industry which proved a lucrative enterprise.

Government officials finally gave scientists from the nearby Novosibirsk Institute of Geology and Mineralogy permission to lift the lid on the crater’s hidden gems in a meeting with journalists over the weekend.
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