While it is true that there are over thousands of diamond mines located all over the world, only a few of them are commercially viable to exploit. However, the production of diamonds has remained consistent over the last few years, thanks to the efforts made by the miners working at the latter.

Most of the largest diamond mines in the world hold over a billion carats of recoverable diamonds. What’s interesting is that about half of these are located in Russia. Below are some of the largest diamond mines in the world, according to diamond reserve.

Botuobinskaya

Botuobinskaya mine, which is located in the Nakyn kimberlite field of Russia, is one of the largest diamond mines in the world. Botuobinskaya is actually a relatively new mine which began the production of diamonds as recently as the year 2015. The miners working here were able to produce approximately 1.5 million carats of rough stone in the year 2016. Reports claim that the Botuobinskaya mine had approximately 69.3 million carats of reserves by 2015. Botuobinskaya mine is one of the major diamond mines to be discovered in Russia’s Yakutia region in over 10 years.

Venetia

Diamond-bearing gravels were first discovered in the area near to Venetia mine in the early 19th century. One of the leading diamond companies in the world, De Beers, decided to fund a project in the year 1969 at this location in order to determine the source of the diamond bearing gravels. They went on to find Venetia kimberlite from the location a decade afterward. The construction of the mine began in 1990, and it became fully operational by 1993. Today, the Venetia mine in South Africa is one of the largest diamond producing mines in both South Africa and the world.

Grib

The one and only major diamond mine in Russia that is not operated by ALROSA is Grib. The diamond production at this mine in the year 2016 was estimated to be approximately 4.5 million carats. This mine was founded by an oil and gas company, Lukoil, when they were looking for natural gas in the Arkhangelsk region of North-Western Russia. Analysts had expected the company to sell the mine, but Lukoil decided not to, because holding on to it was more profitable. The estimated reserve in the Grib mine is estimated at around 91.5 million carats.