Diamond Mine Legends and Myths

Diamonds pulled whole towns into the earth. At the Big Hole in Kimberley, 50,000 miners removed 22.5 million tonnes of soil with picks and shovels, producing 2,722 kg of diamonds in the largest hand dug excavation on Earth. The Mir Mine in Siberia gapes 1.2 km across, and legend claims helicopters are banned overhead because downdrafts pull them in, though no documented accident exists.

Meanwhile Bingham Canyon in Utah, 4 km wide and 1.2 km deep, yielded 19 million tonnes of copper and survived a colossal 2013 landslide..