The Russian government for the first time acknowledged the existence of a massive diamond field in rural Siberia containing trillions of carats worth of diamonds, enough to supply global diamond demand for another 3,000 years, The Christian Science Monitor reported, citing Russian news agency Itar Tass.
The field, known as “Popigai Astroblem” is located in a 62-mile-wide asteroid impact crater that was left 35 million years ago. It was first discovered in the 1970s but kept a secret by the Russian government (then the Soviet Union) until now. It reportedly contains extra hard diamonds, which are best for high-grade industrial uses, such as semiconductor production.