Type: Open Pit
Location: Escondida, Chile
Depth: 787 feet
Brief description/events highlight, etc: The Minera Escondida Mining Co. runs twin open pit mines cut into the skin of the copper capital of the world that is Chile. Construction began in 1990, and this sucker recently overtook Chuquicamata as the world’s largest annual copper producer, with its 2007 yield of 1.48 million tonnes worth US$ 10.12 billion – a whole lot of dollar.Environmental impact aside, Escondida has become a key part of the Chilean economy and employs some 2,951 people directly. A strike in 2006 broke out because workers felt they were not sharing in the super high profits being made on the back of record copper prices. After wrangling for pay demands, the union briefly blockaded the road to the mine. Testy stuff.



Type: Open Pit
Location: Udachnaya Diamond Mine, Russia
Depth: 1,969 feet
Brief description/events highlight, etc: Like the Sarlacc Pit on Steroids, the Udachnaya Mine in Russia is a gigantic open-pit diamond mine that plunges more than 600 metres into the earth’s crust. Yep, it’s one heck of a hole. Located in Russia’s vast but sparsely populated Sakha Republic, just outside the Arctic circle, it seems that mining for these precious stones demands a good set of thermal undies. The nearby settlement of Udachny was named after the diamond deposit, which was discovered in 1955 just days after the Mir (below). The Udachnaya pipe is controlled by Alrosa, Russia’s largest diamond company, which boasts that it plans to halt open-pit mining in favour of underground mining in 2010. Glad to hear it.



Type: Open Pit
Location: Mirny Diamond Mine, Russia
Depth: 1,722 feet
Brief description/events highlight, etc: Siberia’s Mir Diamond Mine comes close to taking the cake as numero holie. The largest open diamond mine in the world, this Russian monster has a surface diameter of 1.2 km and is 525 m deep. The size of the hole is such that wind currents inside cause a downdraft that has resulted in helicopters being sucked in and crashing. Good to know the area above it is now a no-fly zone.



Type: Open Pit
Location: Bingham Canyon Mine, USA
Depth: 3,937 feet
Brief description/events highlight, etc: So here it is, the carbuncle supremo, Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, the world’s biggest manmade pit. This mammoth mine measures 4 km wide and drops a stomach-churning 1.2 km into the ground, the result of extraction begun in 1863. The ore-inspiring fruits of its labour include more than 17 million tonnes of copper and 715 tonnes of gold – a mental load of metal.

Credits: http://www.nationalgeographic.com http://www.wikipedia.com http://www.gotweird.com http://webecoist.momtastic.com http://www.wondermondo.com http://www.guardian.co.uk http://www.sewerhistory.org http://www.chilloutpoint.com http://www.raazebaghaa.ir http://www.geology.com http://www.mediadump.com http://www.englishrussia.com http://www.buzzfeed.com http://www.virtualglobetrotting.com http://www.webecoist.momtastic.com http://www.devilssinkhole.org http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/sinkhole5.htm http://www.sinkhole.org http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1182/pdf/15WCFlorida.pdf http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com