Russia's diamond pipe Mir in Siberia may be worth as much as $10 billion, estimates developers. The Mir project would start in year 2009 and could bring $350 million worth of diamonds annually.

ALROSA is spending $780 million to build a vertical shaft into the mine. Nearly fifty-years of mining at Mir was suspended in 2001 due to environmental costs associated with impacts of using open cast pits, which are no longer used at the site.