Russia has been one of the world's largest diamond producers since the Soviet era. Almost all of its diamonds come from kimberlite pipes in Yakutia (the Sakha Republic) in eastern Siberia, with a smaller second region near Arkhangelsk in the European north. The mines operate in some of the coldest inhabited places on Earth, and most are run by the state-controlled company Alrosa.
Early finds in the Urals
Russia's first recorded diamond was found in 1829 at a gold placer in the Ural Mountains, during an expedition connected with the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. The Urals went on to produce a modest trickle of alluvial diamonds, but no rich deposit was found there. For most of the following century Russia had to buy its diamonds abroad.
The Siberian discoveries
After the Second World War, Soviet planners wanted a domestic source of diamonds for industry as well as gems. Geologists noted that the Siberian Platform, an ancient craton, resembled the diamond-bearing regions of southern Africa. Search teams fanned out across Yakutia in the late 1940s and early 1950s, panning rivers and following trails of indicator minerals such as pyrope garnet.
In 1954 the geologist Larisa Popugaeva and her colleague Natalia Sarsadskikh found the Zarnitsa pipe, the first kimberlite confirmed in the Soviet Union. Their method of tracing pyrope garnets upstream became the model for later searches. The diamond geology page explains why indicator minerals matter.
Discoveries followed quickly. In June 1955 a field team found the Mir pipe, and a few days later the Udachnaya pipe was located further north. The message reporting Mir to Moscow became famous for its coded line about "lighting the pipe of peace" and the tobacco being excellent, meaning the kimberlite was rich. Aikhal and others were found in the years that followed.
Mir
Mir, near the town of Mirny in western Yakutia, became the first major Soviet diamond mine when open-pit mining began in 1957. Over the following decades the pit grew into one of the largest excavated holes in the world, more than 500 m deep and over 1 km across. Open-pit mining ended in 2001, and work continued underground. In 2017 a flood at the underground mine trapped workers, several of whom died, and the mine was shut down afterward.
Udachny, Aikhal and Jubilee
Udachny lies close to the Arctic Circle. Its open pit became one of the deepest in the diamond industry before mining moved underground in the 2010s. Udachny long supplied a large share of Russia's production and ranks among the major mines listed on diamond mines of the world.
Aikhal, also in the Daldyn-Alakit field, was mined as an open pit from the early 1960s and later underground. Nearby Jubilee (Yubileinaya), discovered in 1975, is one of the largest kimberlite pipes in Russia and developed into a major open-pit operation. The name Aikhal comes from a Yakut word often translated as "glory."
Other pipes, such as International (Internatsionalnaya) near Mirny and the Nyurba deposits further east, added to production. Russia has also worked alluvial deposits in Yakutia, including along the Ebelyakh River in the far north.
Mining in permafrost
Yakutia's winters regularly fall below minus 40 degrees, and the ground is frozen to great depth. That permafrost brings problems engineers rarely meet elsewhere:
- Buildings in Mirny and Udachny stand on piles set deep into the frozen ground, so that heat from the building does not thaw it and cause subsidence.
- Machinery, steel and rubber become brittle in extreme cold, and fuel can thicken.
- Processing plants have to keep water from freezing while the ore is washed and sorted.
- The deep open pits fill with cold air in winter, which can trap exhaust and dust.
Diamond recovery uses the same steps found elsewhere: crushing, dense media separation and X-ray sorting. The page on how diamonds are mined describes these methods. Canada's northern mines face many of the same problems, covered on the page on diamond mines of Canada.
Arkhangelsk: Lomonosov and Grib
A second diamond province lies far to the west near Arkhangelsk, in Russia's European north. Kimberlites were found there in the 1980s. The Lomonosov deposit, developed by an Alrosa subsidiary, began production in the 2000s. The V. Grib pipe, named for a geologist who worked on the discovery, came into production in 2014 under a company owned by the oil producer Lukoil. Arkhangelsk diamonds include a good proportion of gem-quality stones, and the deposits lie much closer to European ports than those of Yakutia.
Alrosa and the Soviet legacy
During the Soviet period the state controlled mining, sorting and sale. For much of that time, the Soviet Union sold a large share of its rough through the De Beers-led selling organization in London, an arrangement kept quiet during the Cold War. The history appears on the page on the history of the diamond trade.
After the Soviet collapse, the mines passed to a joint stock company that became Alrosa, with ownership split mainly between the Russian federal government and the Sakha Republic. Alrosa began selling more rough on its own through long-term contracts and its own sales channel. Russia also built up a domestic cutting industry, including factories in Moscow, Smolensk and Yakutia. Rough not cut at home moved through the diamond pipeline to centers such as Antwerp and India.
Sanctions on Russian diamonds
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the United States placed sanctions on Alrosa. The G7 countries and the European Union went on to restrict imports of Russian diamonds, including polished stones cut in third countries from Russian rough above a certain size threshold. These measures led to new tracing and certification requirements for diamonds entering G7 markets. Rules of this kind change over time, so buyers should check the current position with a jeweler or trade body. The page on conflict diamonds explains how origin has been checked under the Kimberley Process, which does not itself cover sanctions.
Frequently asked questions
Where are most Russian diamonds mined?
Most come from kimberlite pipes in Yakutia (the Sakha Republic) in eastern Siberia. A smaller share comes from the Arkhangelsk region in the European north.
What is the Mir mine?
Mir is a kimberlite pipe near the town of Mirny that became the Soviet Union's first major diamond mine in 1957. Its open pit is one of the largest man-made holes in the world.
Who found the first kimberlite in Russia?
Larisa Popugaeva and Natalia Sarsadskikh found the Zarnitsa pipe in 1954 by tracing pyrope garnets. Mir and Udachnaya were found the next year.
Are Russian diamonds sanctioned?
Since 2022, the United States, the European Union and other G7 countries have placed restrictions on Russian diamonds and on Alrosa. The exact rules have changed in stages.