Top 10 deepest quarries in the world. Diamond tube "Mir"

“Creating artificial islands or destroying natural mountains: people are constantly changing the face of the planet. And the miners cope excellently with this task by changing ever larger areas of the landscape. Some of the pits dug by crushers in an attempt to extract ore are true marvels of technology, and the largest of them are visible from space,” writes samsebeskazal .

Some of these amazing examples of human ability to subjugate nature are created in the form of open pits. This mining method is used when resources lie too close to the surface and the soil composition does not allow tunneling. Through the efforts of miners, careers grow until resources are exhausted. After the quarries are depleted, they turn into landfills or artificial lakes, but despite this they continue to amaze the imagination with their scale. We invite you to see the best of the largest quarries in the world.

Diamond tube "Mir"
Owner: Alrosa
Resources: diamonds
Location: Russia, Mirny
Development started in 1957

Currently, it is the second largest man-made crater in the world. This diamond mine is located in Russia, near the city of Mirny. “The World” is so huge that flights are prohibited over it, since the mine workings create a very strong downdraft of air. The quarry, whose development began in 1957, produced up to 10 million carats of diamonds per year until its closure in 2011. "The World" was notorious for its terrible conditions. In winter, the temperature in the quarry drops so much that it freezes engine oil and rubber, and leads to the gradual collapse of the quarry. By the time the mine was closed, the time it took to lift the car from the bottom of the quarry to the surface had reached 2 hours.

2. Diavik diamond tube
owner: Rio Tinto (60%), Harry Winston Diamond Corporation (40%)
Resources: diamonds
Location: Canada
Development started in 2003

The Diavik diamond pipe is located in Canada and is no less impressive than the Mir, despite the fact that it is significantly smaller than its Russian counterpart. Diavik produces 8 million carats of diamonds per year, and the development of the mine began in 2003. It is most notable for the fact that it is located on the island of Lac De Grace, which allows you to observe amazing metamorphoses: in the summer the quarry is surrounded by crystalline water, and in winter it is shrouded in an icy desert. There is a winter road leading to Diavik - the seasonal road is accessible only two months a year, it stretches along the surface of a frozen lake 375 km north of Yellowknife. The rest of the time, you can only get to Diavik by air.

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4. Bingham Canyon
Owner: Rio Tinto
Resources: copper
Location: Utah, USA
Development started in 1904

Visible from space and also known as Kennecott, the Bingham Canyon copper mine is the deepest mine in the world. The discoverers of the mine were the Mormons - who discovered it in the mid-19th century, at that time the deposit reached 1.2 km deep, 2.5 miles wide and occupied an area of ​​more than 7.7 km 2. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the quarry is being developed since 1904, production at the field is expected to continue until 2030.

5. Calgory Super Pit
Owner: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines
Resources: Gold
Location: Calgory, Australia
Development began in 1989.

The Phemiston Open Pit gold mine is the largest gold mine in the world and is commonly referred to as the Super Pit. The oblong-shaped section is located in western Australia, reaches 3.5 km in length, 1.5 km in width and drops to a depth of more than 320 meters. Super Pit produces more than 850 thousand ounces of gold per year.

6. Hal-Rust-Mahoning Quarry
Owner: Hibbing Taconite
Resources: Iron Ore
Location: Minnesota, USA
Development started in 1893

The Mahoning quarry began to be developed as an underground mine, but the iron ore turned out to be too close to the surface and the development had to be carried out using an open pit method. Now the Mahoning quarry reaches 8 km in length, 3.2 km in width and 180 meters in depth. During the development of the field, it was decided to combine several smaller workings into one large quarry. For such a “merger” it was necessary to move the city of Hibbing, located in close proximity to the quarries. Relocating the city took 2 years and $16 million, during which time nearly 200 residential buildings and 20 office buildings were moved. At its peak between World War I and World War II, the mine produced 1/4 of all iron ore produced in the United States. Today, almost 100 years later, the Hibbing Taconite Company still uses Mahoning for mining.

7. Tokepala
Owner: Southern Copper Corporation
Resources: Copper
Location: Tacna, Peru
Development started in 1960

The Andes are home to several of the world's largest mines. Toquepala reaches 700 meters in depth, and the diameter reaches more than 2.5 km. Looking at the photograph taken by a NASA satellite, you can see the giant rock dumps that have formed artificial mountains along the northern part of the mine.

8. Diamond tube “Ekati”
Owner: BHP Billiton
Resources: Diamonds
Location: Northwest Canada
Development started in 1998

Ekati is located 300 km from Yellowknife, and was discovered during the gold rush. Since the project opened in 1985, lands from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Circle have been resold like geological lottery tickets. The scientific discovery that proved that kimberlite pipes are a sign of a diamond deposit made Yekati another Jack later in this lottery.

9. Kimberly Quarry
Owner: Da Beers
Resources: diamonds
Location: Kimberley, South Africa
Development started in 1871

The name - Giant Hole - is what really lets your imagination run wild. The section, 240 meters deep, is the largest mine in the world where mining was carried out manually. The field was originally owned by the Da Beer brothers, which led to a battle over patent licenses with Hal-Rust-Mahoning.
After 16 years of excavations in extremely harsh conditions, small quarries located in the region came to the decision to create a conglomerate, and unite all workings in one company, Da Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. After lying abandoned for more than 100 years, the mine was turned into a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

10. Grasberg Quarry
Owner: Freeport-McMoRan
Resources: copper, gold
Location: Papua, Indonesia
Development started in 1990

The Grasberg deposit is the largest gold mine in the world and the third largest copper mine. Grasberg's turbulent past includes dozens of expeditions, a rebel attack and $55 million in over-budget construction.
In the 1930s, a Dutch scientific expedition set out to explore one of the highest peaks in the Dutch East Indies. The expedition report reported the discovery of reserves of gold and copper, which later became the Ertsberg Quarry. Due to inaccessibility - the field is located in a mountain range at an altitude of more than 4100 meters above sea level - construction costs were estimated at $175 million; the project involved the construction of 116 km of roads, an airstrip, a power plant and a port. In 1977, a group of rebels attacked the mine and caused sabotage by planting explosives on the railway line.
Ten years after the attack, Freeport concluded that production had been depleted and began exploring the area around the field in hopes of producing smaller associated deposits. The company hit the jackpot at the Grasberg deposit, located 3 km from Ertsberg with maximum copper reserves of $40 billion. In the aerial photographs below you can see what Grasberg looks like now. And although Östberg began to be developed in the 30s and about 175 million dollars were invested in it, it is too small to be visible.

11. Chuquicamata
Owner: CODELCO
Resources:: copper, gold
Location: Chile
Development started in 1882

If we talk about volumes, you will not find production larger than the Chilean Chuquicamata. Having moved to the state. property after the Chilean nationalization of 1970, the workings reached 4.3 km long, 3 km wide and almost 900 meters deep.
For a brief period, Chuquicamata held the largest annual production volume. Prior to its merger with the Escondida quarry in 2002, the quarry operated the largest smelter and largest electrolytic refinery in the world. It is obvious that the area in the mine area was used for many hundreds of centuries; 17 years after the start of work, a “copper man” dating back to 500 BC was discovered in a blocked temporary working.

12. Escondida
Owner: Minera Escondida
Resources: Copper
Location: Atacama Desert, Chile
Development started in 1990

Escondida produces more copper than any other quarry in the world. In 2007, Minera Escondida produced more than 1.5 million tons of copper worth more than $20 billion. Construction of the quarry began after studies showed a high probability of the existence of a copper belt in the region, just 300 km from the Chuquicamato quarry.

13. Berkeley Pete
Owner: Atlantic Richfield Company
Resources: copper, silver, gold
Location: Montana, USA
Development started in 1955

The development of the mine was stopped 30 years ago. Since then, without water pumps to keep the quarry open, the 540-meter pit has filled with rainwater. Despite the fact that the water appears crystal clear from above, in fact it contains a real soup of heavy metals and dangerous chemical elements - such as arsenic, sulfuric acid and cadmium. In fact, the water in the quarry is so rich in minerals that Montana Resources extracts 180 thousand tons of copper per month pumping water into the surrounding ponds.
The mine opened in 1955, production was in the region of 1 billion tons of resource and subsequently grew so much that the owner of the Anaconda deposit bought a neighboring city to continue expansion.

14. Yuba Goldfields
Owner: Western Aggregate
Resources: Aggregated
Location: California, USA.
Development started in 1848

Yuba Goldfrieds is located along the Yuba River in California. The deposit was established during the gold rush of 1848-55. Being located in the river bed, the mine was in its infancy, but as soon as word spread about the prospects of the region, large mining companies began to actively invest in projects in the region. To minimize production, companies began opening mines using the pressure of water jets in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Soon, so much waste and debris was dumped into the river that the river bed rose 100 feet and in some areas destroyed and flooded communities in the river area.

The area has now exhausted its gold reserves and although it is still used for the extraction of concrete components, there are plans to turn it into a nature reserve. Yuba Goldfrieds are known for their unusual appearance, when looking at aerial photography you can see how mountains, streams, and pits created under the influence of many years of mining - like a gut, stretch along the river bed.

15. Diamond tube “Lucky”
Owner: ALROSA
Resources: Diamonds
Location: Republic of Sakha, Russia
Development started in 1988

The depth of Udachnaya reaches more than 600 meters, although it is not as wide as Mir. Discovered a little later than Mir, Udachnaya is so remote from civilization that the project had its own small town built for the mine workers, named after the deposit. Since 2010, Alrosa has changed the type of mining at the mine to underground, since open-pit mining has become no longer profitable.

16. Olympic Dam
Owner: BHP Billiton
Resources: copper, gold, silver, uranium
Location: South Australia
Development started in 1988.

Although BHP Billiton's underground mine has plans to expand into the world's largest open pit mine, it already stretches a long way from what was once Roxby Downs Ships station. Imagine that this deposit contains tons of copper, uranium, gold and silver.

Olympic Dam has the world's fourth largest copper reserve and is the world's largest uranium deposit. Even without expanding the area of ​​the Olympic Dam quarry, it consumes 35 million liters of water daily.

In an open way. In relation to a quarry, the term "cut" is used.

Open pit mining has been known since the Paleolithic era. The first large quarries appeared in connection with the construction of the pyramids in Ancient Egypt; later in the ancient world marble was quarried on a large scale. The expansion of the application of open-pit mining using quarries was hampered until the beginning of the 20th century by the lack of productive machines for excavating and moving large volumes of overburden. In the early 80s, 95% of construction rocks, about 70% of ores, 90% and 20% of hard coals were mined through quarries in the world. The scale of production in quarries reaches tens of millions of tons per year (table).

Transport connections in quarries are provided by permanent or sliding ramps, and with the surface - by trenches. During operation, the working benches move, resulting in an increase in mined-out space. Through stripping operations, overburden rocks are moved to dumps, sometimes placed in mined-out spaces; mining operations provide the extraction and movement of minerals to an industrial site for primary processing or for shipment to the consumer. This is how the main cargo flows in the quarries are formed, which largely determine its appearance and technological features.

With a quarry depth of up to 100 m with strong host rocks, up to 25-30% of the cost of 1 m 3 of overburden is occupied by drilling and blasting operations, 12-16%, 35-40% by transport and 10-15% by dumping; with increasing depth of quarries, the share of transport costs increases to 60-70%. Modern quarries are highly mechanized enterprises equipped with productive machines and mechanisms for crushing, excavating, transporting and storing rocks. In relation to large quarries, powerful mining and transport equipment is decisive. For drilling blast holes, heavy drilling rigs (cone roller rigs with removal of drill fines by compressed air) weighing up to 100-130 tons, developing a force on the bit of 60-70 tf (hole diameter up to 300-450 mm), and light drilling rigs are used. The main types of explosives are granulated ammonium nitrate granulites (bestrotyl of the simplest composition), grammonites (a mixture of nitrate with TNT) and water-filled ones (in flooded wells). Mechanical loosening is carried out by rippers, the power of which has reached 735 kW, and the weight of 130 tons. Electric excavators with a cable drive and a bucket with a capacity of 15-30 m 3 with a boom length of up to 26 m are the main excavation and loading equipment for coal and ore mining. At the same time, hydraulic straight mechanical shovels with buckets with a capacity of 10-38 m 3 are widely used. Single-bucket loaders of various models with buckets with a capacity of 4-20 m 3, weighing from 25 to 180 tons and a drive power from 184 to 1040 kW are being improved; the main part of the models are with articulated frames that rotate by 35-45°. In stripping operations, increasingly powerful shovels and draglines are being introduced (a stripping shovel weighing 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 135 m 3 with a drive power of 22 thousand kW and a dragline weighing 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 168 m 3 with a boom length of 92 m are used).

Automated systems for long-term, current and operational planning of mining operations in quarries have been created for all technological processes, including the reclamation of lands disturbed by open-pit mining. To determine the final boundaries and productivity of quarries, computers are used. The computer system contains data on the conditions of occurrence, information on the thickness of overburden rocks, other geological factors, economic indicators (planned quarry productivity, capital investments, cost data), and environmental protection requirements.

Due to the large scale of mining operations and the depth of the quarry, the circulation of air masses is changed (cold air “drains” into the quarry) and a special microclimate is created (see Ventilation of quarries).

The radiogram that the geologists of the Amakinsk expedition, which discovered the pipe, sent to Moscow sounded like this: “We lit the pipe of peace, the tobacco is excellent. Avdeenko, Elagina, Khabardin.” The heart of Mirny, one of the largest kimberlite pipes in the world was discovered on June 13, 1955. Over 44 years of work, diamonds were found in it, according to unofficial estimates, worth 17 billion dollars. It is located in the Malo-Botuobinsky diamond-bearing region. This hole is half a kilometer deep and 1,200 meters in diameter. A spiral road from the top of the quarry to...

Bingham Canyon is the largest operating open-pit mine. Copper, molybdenum, gold and silver are mined here using open-pit mining. The mine is located near Salt Lake City. Development of the field began in 1863 and continues to this day. During operation, more than 17 million tons of copper, 652 tons of gold and 5386 tons of silver were mined. This quarry is 1.2 kilometers deep and 4 kilometers wide. Bingham Canyon was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966...

The Grasberg deposit is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine, as well as the highest open pit in the world. It is located in the Papua province of Indonesia, near Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Papua New Guinea. The development employs 20 thousand employees. A stake in the field belongs to a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan. The Indonesian government owns the remaining 9.36% of PT Freeport Indonesia. FCX operates under an agreement with the Indonesian government, which...

The Ekati diamond mine is located 200 km south of the Arctic Circle, near Lac de Grace in Canada's Northwest Territories, approximately 300 km northeast of Yellowknife. Ikati is a local word meaning “fat lake”. The name of the place is attributed to white deposits of quartz rock throughout the area that are similar in consistency to reindeer fat. Ekati is both a surface and underground diamond mine in Canada. This is a joint venture between BHP Billiton Diamonds (80%) and...

The Big Hole is a huge inactive diamond mine in the city of Kimberley (South Africa). It is believed that this is the largest quarry developed by people without the use of technology. Currently the main attraction of the city of Kimberley. The area of ​​the “Big Hole” is 17 hectares. Its perimeter is 1.6 km and its width is 463 meters. The hole was dug to a depth of 240 meters, but then was filled with waste rock to a depth of 215 meters, currently the bottom of the hole is filled with water, its depth is 40 meters...

The Canadian Diavik quarry is perhaps one of the youngest (in terms of development) diamond kimberlite pipes. It was first explored only in 1992, the infrastructure was created by 2001, and diamond mining began in January 2003. The mine is expected to last from 16 to 22 years.en.wikipedia.org/wik...0Diamond%20Mine...

Escondida is a large open-pit mine consisting of two quarries in which copper ore is mined at the deposit of the same name. It is located in the north of the Atacama Desert, 170 km southeast of Antofagasta in northern Chile. The quarry began work in 1990 at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters above sea level. As of 2011, the most copper is mined there than anywhere else in the world. In 2007, 1.5 million tons of copper were mined there, about a tenth of the world's annual copper production. In his career he works...

Sand is considered a cheap and harmless material used for construction. And there are a lot of reserves of it. There are quarries in the Moscow region that are used for sand extraction. It is hidden under a layer of soil, so to get to it, you need to open this barrier. The cost of sand may depend on the equipment used to extract it, on loading, and on the type of operation that was performed. In addition, sand is also obtained under water, for which special pumps are used.

Basically, the sand provided by the quarries of the Moscow region contains stones and clay. Even in this form, this material is used, but for construction it is sifted or washed.

Sand processing methods

Sand quarries in the Moscow region usually provide material that must be processed for further production. Its types are divided into:

1. Washed sand. After the material has been loaded and delivered, it should be cleared of stones and clay. In this case, this method is used. Subsequently, the resulting material is used for floor screed, plaster, and also for reinforced concrete products. It can sometimes be packaged in bags.
2. Seeded sand. This method produces material for laying brick, asphalt or concrete mixtures. It is prepared in large volumes, which are called screenings. They are then used to fill the concrete. If there are larger particles, then such sand is used for brick or stone.

Most famous locations

Sand quarries are very rich in different types of extracted materials. The most interesting are the limestone and phosphorous quarries. They are quite old, as they even find deposits from the Carboniferous and Jurassic periods (Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, respectively). For several centuries, sand has been extracted from quarries in the Moscow region. Basically, the resulting limestone is used for further production of cement or for road crushed stone.

Such deposits exist in the southeast of the Moscow region, namely in the area of ​​Yegoryevsk and Voskresensk.

Description of the quarries

We have already found out what the sand quarry provides. The Moscow region is saturated with points where such material can be mined. Basically, they are all up to 5 km long and resemble a stepped trench. There is a special excavator that runs on rails. He removes the rock with a ribbon, and the length of the cut is about 50 m. All of them flow into the dump. Then the procedure is repeated in the opposite direction. Thus, in the end, huge dumps remain, which are located in parallel. There are phosphorite quarries in Voskresensk. The sand here is of black shades. Such places are a paradise for stone lovers.

Several famous quarries in the Moscow region

The quarries of the Moscow region are constantly expanding. After all, sand is needed for people who are engaged in construction. There are several famous places that are saturated with sand:

1. Sychevsky sand quarry. It is located in the Volokamsky district; you need to travel 90 km from Moscow to get to this place.
2. Malkinsky sand quarry. It is located near Pyatigorsk, namely, 35 km from it.
3. Bogaevsky sand quarry. This place is considered very famous. The material that was obtained here provided more than one construction site in the capital. This quarry is located in the small village of Oreshki, Ruza district.

The map of quarries in the Moscow region is rich in various deposits. The Chulkovsky quarry is located in the Ramensk region. Near it there is the Eganovskoye deposit, which provides glass sand. These two places are very similar, they seem to complement each other. In this area there is a group of quarries where there are different deposits, namely:

• coal;
• Lower Cretaceous;
• Neogene;
• Upper Jurassic.

These places are rich in Oxford clays. To open them, you have to penetrate to a depth of 2.5 m. Quartz-glauconite sands stand out from the rest in appearance. They have a greenish tint, are small grains, and contain clay.

In addition, in the quarries of the Moscow region, for example, in the Zaoksky districts. The quarries in the Serebryanoprudsky and Serpukhov regions, which are rich in iron ore and titanium, are considered famous.

The Eganovskoye deposit is a source of quartz sand. Throughout the entire area they are covered with moraine clays, alluvial loams, and sandstones with different grains. This layer reaches up to 7 m. In addition, there is another popular quarry that produces nodular phosphorites. This is the Yegoryevskoye field. It's very big.

So, the Moscow region is full of quarries, which are sources of sand, which is so necessary for construction.

Most minerals are found underground. To extract them, you have to open the upper layers of the lithosphere - the earth's crust and part of the mantle. Open pit mining is the oldest technology that has retained its relevance.

A quarry is an artificially formed excavation on the surface of the earth that allows the extraction of a deep-lying layer of natural resources. The funnel has a cone-shaped shape that tapers towards the bottom, and spiral-shaped roads for equipment are created on its slopes. Let's look at the top 10 deepest quarries in the world, where the main riches of our planet are collected.

No. 1 - mine in South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a developed industrial-agrarian country, the depths of which are very rich in minerals. And it is no coincidence that one of the deepest quarries on our planet is located right here, in the city of Kimberley (geographic coordinates: 28°44′19″ S 24°45′31″ E / 28.738611° S 24.758611 E .d.). The mine, which was a volcanic vent 100 million years ago, goes into the bowels of the earth to a depth of more than 1000 meters.

Over the course of 50 years, 50 thousand miners manually dug the Big Hole mine, which covers an area of ​​as much as 17 hectares. The diamond mine in Kimberley is not only the deepest, but also the largest quarry on earth, developed without the use of special equipment.

At the beginning of the last century, all work was stopped, and the gaping crater of the Big Hole continues to attract tourists. However, this is where there is a danger of collapse of the edges of the mine and the nearby roads, so travelers should be very careful.

No. 2 - Yakut diamond deposit "Mir"

The deepest diamond quarry is located on the territory of Yakutia, in the village of Mirny (geographic coordinates: 62°31"36.7"N 113°59"31.8"E). Even just one look at an open-type mine 515 meters deep and more than a kilometer wide becomes scary. The basin, in which geologists discovered kimberlites (diamond-containing rocks) in 1955, was called the “kimberlite pipe.”

Unfortunately, industrial mining of precious stones in the diamond capital of Russia ceased 17 years ago, because open-pit mining became unprofitable and the Mir quarry was too dangerous for the lives of workers. Underground mines are now being built, and some have already been put into operation, and the mothballed quarry is a local landmark.

#3 - The Bingham Canyon Mine

When it comes to the deepest quarries in the world, one cannot fail to mention Bingham Canyon in the USA, located in the state of Utah (geographic coordinates: 40°31′12″ N 112°09′00″ W / 40.52, 112.15). This is the largest anthropogenic formation in which copper was mined. Minerals were first discovered in the 50s of the 19th century, and since then the industrial development of the quarry has been carried out, the depth of which is more than a kilometer and the width is 4 kilometers.

The giant mining giant, designated a National Historic Landmark, was seriously damaged in 2013. A large landslide covered special equipment and destroyed buildings built nearby, after which Bingham Canyon was mothballed.

No. 4 - Ural field

The Korkinsky coal mine, located in the Urals, in the Chelyabinsk region, is one of the deepest quarries in Eurasia. The deposit, where open-pit coal is mined, was considered the largest in the Soviet Union. Its depth exceeds 500 meters, and its diameter is more than 3 kilometers.

The quarry (geographic coordinates: N 54°53"55" E 61°25"1") was opened in 1931, and 5 years later construction of a second mine began to increase the rate of production. Residents of Korkino were evacuated, and in the summer the most powerful explosion in the entire history of the Urals occurred, after which a crater 900 meters long and 20 meters deep was formed. 6 years ago, the authorities decided to close the mine, the sides of which began to move, and residential buildings that stood nearby began to collapse.

No. 5 - The richest marble deposit

In Russia there is an amazing deposit of snow-white marble, the development of which began in the 20s of the last century. In the village of Koelga, Chelyabinsk region (geographic coordinates: 54°38"53"N 60°54"52"E) there is a giant pit approximately 75 meters deep and more than 1.5 kilometers in diameter. Now a huge enterprise has developed here, but 90 years ago the stone was mined using artisanal methods.

Koelga marble is easy to cut and polish, and its transparency creates a unique play of light and shadow on the surface. This is not a radioactive material, so it is used in construction without restrictions. It is this marble that is used to decorate all Moscow metro stations, as well as hundreds of buildings and churches throughout the country.

No. 6 - Chuquicamata, source of copper ore

In 1882, development of the deepest quarry in the world began in Chile. Photos of Chuquicamata make you admire the skill and skill of the workers mining up to 30 million tons of copper. In one of the largest sources of copper ore, work began only at the beginning of the last century and continues to this day.

The length of the Chuquicamata quarry (geographic coordinates: 22°17′ S 68°54′ W, 22.283333° S 68.9° W) is 4 kilometers, and the depth already exceeds 850 meters.

No. 7 - Escondida Quarry

In Chile there is a large-scale complex consisting of two quarries. Almost 30 years ago, a large deposit was discovered in the north of the country, and at an altitude of more than 3 thousand above sea level, development of a copper mine began, which acquired gigantic proportions. Its depth is approximately 645 meters.

The Escondida quarry, located in the Atacama Desert (geographic coordinates: 24°16"9.00" S 69° 4"14.03" W), has long had the status of a world leader in the level of production of valuable metal.

No. 8 - "Gold Mine" of Australia

Australia's deepest quarry is the Kalgoorlie Super Pit (geographic coordinates: 22°17′ S 68°54′ W, 22.283333° S 68.9° W). It is a gold-bearing vein about 570 meters deep and almost 4 kilometers long. This is a city-forming enterprise with more than 550 employees working on its territory.

At the mine, opened at the end of the 19th century, gold was mined in small mines, and then they were combined into an entire industrial complex, the Kalgoorlie Super Pit, which brings good income to its owners.

No. 9 - Indonesian Quarry

Near the Puncak Jaya mountain range in Papua Province, Indonesia (geographic coordinates: 4°03′10″S 137°06′57″E / 4.052778°S 137.115833°E) The Grasberg quarry is located at an altitude of 4,285 meters above sea level. The mine, used for the extraction of gold, silver and copper, is also the most mountainous, which makes its development difficult. And only recently, thanks to the use of special equipment, it was possible to establish full production.

The gigantic man-made Grasberg quarry, 480 meters deep, worked until the end of 2017, and now all development is carried out only underground.

No. 10 - Copper quarry in the Andes

The Toquepala Quarry (geographic coordinates: 17°14′42″ S 70°36′50″ W / 17.245° S 70.613889° W) is located in the city of Tanca, Peru. One of the most impressive man-made mines began operations in 1960. Its depth has long exceeded 80 meters, and the diameter of the basin in the majestic Andes is more than 2 thousand meters. Toquepala was originally developed for copper mining, but now molybdenum and silver are mined here. The extracted rock is dumped next to the country's deepest quarry, and man-made mounds have formed in the north.

Large plants have been built nearby to enrich ore used for the country's internal needs.