The Sibaysky quarry is the second largest quarry in the world

If you decide to find out which careers are the biggest on the planet, you will find very, very contradictory information. Only after a long analysis it becomes clear that, as a rule, in all articles it is told about huge quarries in which one or another useful fossil is extracted. But, unfortunately, with this approach, there is considerable confusion.

The two greatest career in the world

Everything becomes clear when the reader pays attention not to the mined minerals, but to the depth of the quarry and the diameter of its bowl. And then we are waiting for unexpected news. It turns out that one of the largest quarries is in our country, in Russia. This, of course, is the quarry Sibaysky. It is the second largest in the world. The first place was occupied by a copper-ore mine, located in Chile. Its bowl is elongated, the length is about four kilometers, and the width is almost three kilometers. The depth of the Chilean quarry is more than 850 meters. They have been mining ore here for a very long time. Back in 1989, a small entrance to a simple mine was discovered here. Scientists have calculated and found out that the mine was created by the hands of people who lived already in 540 AD!

There are huge copper-ore quarries in a number of countries, but all of them, unfortunately, are inferior to the Chilean one by some sign. In our country, many mistakenly believed that the famous Yakut quarry "Mir" is the largest in the USSR. But its upper size is 1200 meters, and the depth is just over five hundred meters. Of course, Mir is one of the largest quarries in the world, where diamonds are mined. But since this deposit is not currently processed by the open method, it will never increase its parameters. Now only processing under the ground is used.

Of course, you can continue to give countless examples with huge careers. But if you still calculate them only in size, and not in the types and types of mined material, it turns out that the Sibaisky quarry is the second largest after the above-mentioned Chilean. It is located in Bashkortostan, in all the beloved Urals. The depth of the Sibaysky quarry is more than 578 meters, and the diameter of the bowl is about two thousand meters.

How did the quarry Sibaysky

This method was accidentally noticed by one of the local hunters, who then lived in the village of Old Sibai. When the hunter with his dog pursued a fur-bearing beast, who hid in his burrow, he found a piece of unusual clay red. She was unusually heavy and this interested the hunter. Soon geologists arrived to this place. They determined that this piece is not clay, but brown iron ore, which contains a large amount of silver and gold. As is known, these metals are accompanied by copper ores.

Further development

Already in the fifteenth year of the last century laid an exploration mine. But unfortunately, because of the Civil War and further destruction to the main body of ore managed to reach only in 1939 a goal. Five years later, a factory was launched, specializing in the smelting of copper. Four years later, a decision was made to build the first copper-sulfur plant in Bashkiria. At the same time, another city of miners was created simultaneously with it, which was named Sibai. Now this city is convenient for living. He has two institutes, two colleges and three colleges. In addition, there are fourteen schools in Sibai, one philharmonic society and a drama theater. It is worth saying that not every city of regional importance is so developed! Close to the settlement adjoins the Sibai quarry (how to pass into the quarry, you can ask the guards - it tells you where the observation deck). For this reason, all buildings over 20 meters in height are resistant to underground tremors, because of the work with explosions in the quarry created quite palpable earthquakes. Even at five-story buildings the thickness of walls sometimes reaches seventy centimeters.

In 2000, 100 million tons of copper ore were mined. And all this gave the Sibaisky quarry. How to get there? This is not difficult, because the quarry is located directly at the border of the city of Siba.

Termination of career

Recently, a decision was made to preserve the quarry, as extraction of ore from it with the help of BelAZ became unprofitable because of too long a road. At present, the remaining ore bodies are treated by underground methods already at 5 horizons. At the same time, three horizons have access to the quarry, which is located almost in its middle. Due to this, it is possible to deliver ore along the serpentine roads. In the mines, you can extract more than 4 million tons of ore.

In addition, the Sibaysky quarry is now not the only field. Not far from it, another one was created. And now, if you look at Sibai from a helicopter, first of all two huge quarries and, of course, the great Ural mountains are thrown into the eyes.