# "Russia admits to have over '1 trillion carats' in diamond



## BORTZ (Sep 19, 2012)

Diamonds in the Rough-ssia​




Have you ever wondered what its like to live in Russia? If you have played Fallout 3, you probably already have a pretty good idea. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, things went from bad to worse. But it seems like Russia has been hiding something for 40 some years.

For years now, under the Soviet government, russians have been building classified facilities to start mining and exporting goods from the great beyond. Recently Russia has admitted to having over 1 trillion carats worth of diamonds hidden away in a 62 mile wide crater.

"Diamonds you say? Like diamonds that go on rings?" Not exactly. These were formed differently from the rocks used to persuade someone to spend the rest of your life with. The carbon Russia has been hiding for so long are called "impact diamonds". Siberia is covered with natural graphite deposits. When a flaming rock from space careened into the surface of the earth, the graphite instantly became super hard diamonds, twice as strong as average beauty shiners.

Why the hush hush? Russia has been secretly gearing up for this move for quite some time, especially because of the mining operation in Mirny, Yakutia.



> And indeed, the deposit of super-hard diamonds contained in rocks of the Popigai crypto-explosion structure is massive — about trillions of carats. This is ten times the amount found in Yakutia.
> Moreover, this extraterrestrial diamond deposit is the only one in the world. By virtue of this unique cache, Russia now has a monopoly on what will surely be a very sought after resource. And indeed, geologists say there is enough raw material in the crater to supply global demand for centuries to come.



Insane in the membrane.
Source(s)
 io9
 Gizmodo

Sorry @[member='Gahars']
I thought i would take this one. Not only do i find things about the USSR, rocks, and space interesting, but also my last name, Bortz, actually means "industrial strength diamond".


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## Tom Bombadildo (Sep 19, 2012)

Wow. That's a lot. Like a lot a lot.


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## Hyro-Sama (Sep 19, 2012)

No pics of teh diamonds?


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## The Catboy (Sep 19, 2012)

I'm trying to shake a stick at it, but I can't! >.


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## Gahars (Sep 19, 2012)

It's cool by me, Bortz. Shine on you crazy diamond...

I have a feeling these are going to last Russia a long, long time. After all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHmzwZ8h9oc


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## BORTZ (Sep 19, 2012)

I knew that reference would come up sooner or later!


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## Tom Bombadildo (Sep 19, 2012)

Hyro-Sama said:


> No pics of teh diamonds?


Err...this is Russia we're talking about here. Not saying anything bad about Russia, but they've certainly attempted to keep themselves secret for quite a while. There's still a ton of stuff from WWII we don't know yet. 

However I'm sure pictures will turn up eventually.


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## chavosaur (Sep 19, 2012)

So if these are like super hard diamonds, you cant mine them unless you use like explosives or something right? Or am I just thinking to much Minecraft?


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## BORTZ (Sep 19, 2012)

io9 has the cover image to what i imagine would be an arial shot of the crater, but i dont think you can see any diamonds.


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## The Catboy (Sep 19, 2012)

chavosaur said:


> So if these are like super hard diamonds, you cant mine them unless you use like explosives or something right? Or am I just thinking to much Minecraft?


You can only break this diamond with diamondium!


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## nukeboy95 (Sep 19, 2012)

diamond hunt any one?


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## Guild McCommunist (Sep 19, 2012)

Ten points to and from Gryffindor for the pun.


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## Ethevion (Sep 19, 2012)

I'll take a trillion and one carats, no less.


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## ShadowSoldier (Sep 19, 2012)

So in other words, they still don't have anything useful for the rest of the world?


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## FAST6191 (Sep 19, 2012)

I shall have to read up on the physics of this (tangentially related http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/30/diamonds_hard_material/ ) as I am not entirely sure how that works.

Wandering in I was kind of hoping this was about them having stuff locked in stores and they were gearing up to flood the diamond market and put the price down to what it should be (diamonds are pretty much common worthless rocks save for the artificial scarcity) but this is probably more interesting.


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## FireGrey (Sep 19, 2012)

I like me some diamond carrots.
Do they taste like normal carrots just look better?


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## Pong20302000 (Sep 19, 2012)

so diamond price will fall soon as there is lots available making it less rare LOL


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## Sterling (Sep 19, 2012)

Pong20302000 said:


> so diamond price will fall soon as there is lots available making it less rare LOL



Not quite. These diamonds are the only kind on Earth at the moment. It's likely that these will only be used in specific applications and they'll be exorbitantly expensive since Russia is the only know place now to get them. Regular diamonds won't fall in price.


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## BORTZ (Sep 19, 2012)

Pong20302000 said:


> so diamond price will fall soon as there is lots available making it less rare LOL


Diamonds (the pretty kind) are already not a rare material. They can be sold for such profit because of hoarding and clever market maneuvering. But diamonds are not rare by any means. 

But those arent even what we are talking about. Read the article. These are industrial strength diamonds. The kinds used for coating saw blades and shiz.


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## ShadowSoldier (Sep 21, 2012)

FireGrey said:


> I like me some diamond carrots.
> Do they taste like normal carrots just look better?



Eh, joke only works in speech, in text it doesn't work out too well.


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## 1stClassZackFair (Sep 21, 2012)

Lets Russi-all the way over there to get some diamonds. (Yeah i know,I suck at puns)


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