Kelsey Lake Diamond Mine

Colorado

For a few years in the nineties, the only modern diamond mine in the United States was working a patch of northern Colorado near the Wyoming line.

historicalengineeringnatural

For a few years in the nineties, the only modern diamond mine in the United States sat here, near the Wyoming border. Nine ancient volcanic pipes push up through the ground in what geologists call the State Line Kimberlite District. Three of them held diamonds. Two got dug out as open pits, each about ten and a half acres across and at least three hundred fifty feet deep, half a mile apart. Diamonds turned up in this district back in 1976, and prospectors spent twenty years trying to turn that into a business. Commercial output finally began in May of 1996. It was only the second commercial diamond operation in North America, after the Arkansas field mined in the early nineteen hundreds. The stones were real and some were beautiful. Half to two thirds of what came out was gem quality. The mine still never made money, and it shut down in 2001. By 2006 the whole site had been reclaimed.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
At the time it was operating, it was the United States' only modern diamond mine, and only the second commercial diamond mining operation in North America

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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