Innokentiy Nogovitsyn is a diamond miner in Siberia for Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond producer by volume.
Nogovitsyn lives in Mirny, a diamond-mining town in RussianSiberia about 280 miles (450 kilometers) from the Arctic Circle, where most of the town’s 40,000 residents work for Alrosa. His job is to monitor methane levels, airflow, and temperature in the mine.
On a recent trip to Russia, I had the chance to tour Alrosa’s facilities and meet Nogovitsyn, who has been working as a miner for eight years. While he didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Russian, a translator helped me understand what a day in his life generally looks like.
I wasn’t able to follow Nogovitsyn into the mine, for safety reasons, but we met at a hotel café in Mirny, and he later sent me photos taken by himself and his fellow miners.
Here’s what a typical day looks like for Nogovitsyn as a diamond miner in Siberia.
Innokentiy Nogovitsyn is a 30-year-old diamond miner in Siberia. He works for Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond miner by volume
Nogovitsyn lives in Mirny, a diamond-mining town in Siberia about 280 miles (450 kilometers) from the Arctic Circle.
Mirny has been called a “mono-city” because most of the town’s 40,000 residents work for Alrosa.
Nogovitsyn lives in an apartment in Mirny with his wife and their two children, an 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son
Nogovitsyn usually wakes up at 5:30 a.m.
At 6:15 a.m., Nogovitsyn catches a bus to the mine, called the International mine, just outside of Mirny
It’s about a 30-minute bus ride
The International mine, which is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Mirny, opened in 1999
The International mine is open 24/7, with miners rotating through morning, evening, and night shifts. It produces the world’s largest content of carats per tonne of ore: seven carats of diamond per tonne of ore.
In April, a 118.91-carat diamond was mined at the International mine.
Before every shift, Nogovitsyn and all the other miners get a medical check
Their blood pressure and heart rate are measured, and they get checked for any alcohol or drugs in their blood.
“To make sure there are no people taking in alcohol, they test twice, on the way in and on the way out,” a spokesperson for Alrosa told Business Insider.
If an employee is caught with alcohol, they’re immediately fired, the spokesperson said. At the mine, it’s said that nobody is irreplaceable.
Before their shift, the miners eat a buffet-style breakfast in the workers’ canteen
Alrosa provides a stipend that covers all of the miners’ meals in the canteen
After breakfast, the miners are assigned their particular job for the day, and then they have five minutes to change into their uniforms
The uniforms include headlamps, safety helmets, and sturdy boots.
After everyone is dressed, it’s time to head down into the mine
Nogovitsyn said that during a shift, there are about 100 people in the International mine.
The miners take an elevator down into the depths of the mine
The deepest point of the mine is about 0.62 miles (one kilometer) deep.
To ride the elevator from the surface to the bottom of the mine takes about 15 minutes, Nogovitsyn said.
In the mine, Nogovitsyn’s job is to monitor methane levels, airflow, and temperature
He walks throughout the mine all day monitoring the air. In one shift, he said he walks an average of about 9 miles, or 15 kilometers.
Thanks to a ventilation system that pumps in warmed air, the mine stays at a consistent temperature — even throughout Siberia’s harsh winters
Depending on how deep you are in the mine, the temperature ranges between about 62 degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius) to 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius).
Nogovitsyn eats lunch down in the mine
The miners usually pack containers of food from the canteen to eat for lunch.
At 4:50 p.m., the miners take the elevator back up to the surface
At the end of his shift, Nogovitsyn has to write a report and get another quick medical examination, this time just checking for any alcohol in his system.
He usually leaves the mine at 5:30 p.m. and gets home at 6, about 12 hours after he leaves in the morning.
In his free time, Nogovitsyn spends time with his family
After he gets home, Nogovitsyn typically does a workout or takes his kids to play in the park, and then he eats dinner with his family.
Nogovitsyn gets 76 paid vacation days a year, which, he said, he often spends cycling hundreds of miles across Russia and Europe
Throughout the year, Nogovitsyn typically works four days in a row followed by one or two days off.
He works on this schedule for several months, and then takes all of his 76 vacation days at once. He said he usually spends half of that time with his family and half of that time embarking on hundreds of miles-long cycling trips across Europe and Asia, often accompanied by his friend and fellow Alrosa miner, Danil.
He has cycled through countries including France, Norway, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Singapore
Some years, instead of cycling, Nogovitsyn will spend half of his vacation days on hunting or fishing trips with Danil.
According to an Alrosa spokesperson, in Russia, diamond mining is classified as a dangerous profession, which is why the miners get so many vacation days.
Employees of Alrosa and their families have access to a number of social initiatives, including sports facilities, cultural and educational programs, free medical services, corporate pensions, housing programs, and support with real-estate loans.
Fonte: Business Insider
