SHENYANG - A large diamond mine, estimated to hold about one million carats of diamonds, was discovered in northeast China's Liaoning province, local mineral exploration authorities said.

Workers in the Sixth Geological Team of Liaoning discovered the mine 860 meters underground in Wafangdian district in the city of Dalian last year.

Experts said it is the deepest deposit of diamonds found so far in Asia and it will take more than 30 years to completely extract all the resources.

In 2010, a mine containing 210,000 carats diamonds was also discovered in Wafangdian, less than 50 kilometers away from the newly discovered one.

Lin Shaoquan, chief engineer of the geological team, said the exploration will be hard due the deposit being buried so deep.

Lin said the current exploration speed of the diamond mines may lead to the exhaustion of the world verified diamond resources in the next 20 years, but the new discovery will help alleviate the problem.

Diamond mines in China are mainly located in Wafangdian and Linyi in east China's Shandong province, and Wafangdian's diamond reserve is known to be the largest in the country.