The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-24
pAs MILLIONS IN DIAMONDS.
ruD WEALTH OF THOSE MINES IN
SOUTH AFRICA.

IN store at hiAnDcrieS-hhe =
ost care Taken to Prevent Theft.
rho work Is Done Chiefly by
t,oFrs-The Daily Output-HOv
,ba Wines Were Discovered ana
rn.tr Marvellous Development.
some History.
IRON the Boston Transcript
>-,,o5v knows just how much value in
49,. shane of diamonds is kept in store at
l-+nberly but it is certainly gigantic.
o.,i,a possibly it is 100000 600 worth. The
.',7,n,nv has offices in London, but its
as,Iouarters are in the South African
...,, and there, in a building resembling
hank the bulk of the gems is kept.
..orcd away in vaults If only a fraction
-. them was offered for sale at once, the
rri.c of diamonds would promptly tumble,
I'M, the great corporation, owning as it
.t,e. deposits which produce % per cent.
o. the worlds entire yield of these pre-
,f,us stones, is able TO control the mar
t.l absolutely, and holds back large
mart of its output, disposng of only lin
ited number of carats per annum
The Weld of the mines is about $500 ca
rails every twenty-four hours, and the
diamonds obtained from the diggings are
sent daily UNDER armed escort, 10 the
,ompanys headquarters, and there del.v-
cred to the appraisers in charge. First,
they are cleaned by moliug them in d
mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids, and
then they are carefully sorted in resnect
to size color and purity. In one room
are kept on exhibition 10000 carats, and
us may be imagined, the spectacle they
afford is most striking. Beneath large
windows runs broad counter covered
with sheets of white paper, upon which
ave laid out ever so many clustering heaps
of diamonds of Undesirable variety They
are Of all shades from deep yellow to blue
white from deep brown 10 light brown
and in great variety of blues, greens
and pinks.
Only dozen years ago the Kimberly
mines were worked as over 5000 separate
Gains, each thirty-one feet square ana
separated from each other by narrow
roads for hauling the gem-bearing earth
In 1885, however, Cecil Rhodes brouebt
about a consolidation of all these proper
ues into a single corporation, which now
practically monopolizes the diamond pro
ducion Of the world, with a CAPITAL of
Si95DG@ Two of the mines-the Du Toits
Pan and the De Beers-are the largest
holes ever sunk in the earth, the mouth
of the former being nineteen acres in ex-
IaUt while the latter has a yawn of thirtv-
five acres. They are lighted by electricity.
and The machinery used is of the most in
senIous and powerful description
The Mining.
From the central shaft of each mine runs
system OF galleries, at various levels. like
so many burrows, in which laborers dig
cut the demonstrating earth and load il
upon hand-cars, the latter being hauled to
the surface with the help of machinery
The earth is blush clay and. as fast as
il is brought to the light of dav. il Is
spread out over the ground. Being left
mus Tor some weeks though hard and
fought at first il becomes friable and
1Iumoiy through exposure to sun and
moisture, and the process is helped by 60
ing over it again with harrows.
Nhen at length il has reached a salts
factory condition, it is loaded into hand
cars and1aken TO the huge washing ma
cAnes in which by means of running wa
Ter the precious stones are separated from
'ne ouIK OF the raw material. The ma
c"iheS are great watts containing centrifu-
Sd wheels, by which, as they rapidly re-
FoVe, the material is pulverized. the light
er stuf being fioated off, while the dia-
iioHuS ana other heavy particles are con-
centrated at the bottom.
Inc concentrate, when removed from the
Washing machines, is placed in moist boys
ON 'dDles, where ii is assorted while wet
~ MHte men. and again after it is dry by
haIlfs The sOrters work with small troW-
els and not a diamond the size of a nin-
ue'o escapes their notice. Indeed, there
y no great difficulty involved in this task.
"aSthuch as such gems in their natural
ae are by no means the duh pebbles
lAey are commonly described as being. On
'nt contrary though not so brilliant as when
sol 10y the skilled lapidary, they are very
"IsHt ana sparkling, indeed. After being
conveyed to the company's Headquarters,
Nty are valued and sold in parcels TO To-
"a buyers, who represent the leading dia-
"oHd merchants of Europe The size Of
pd'eei varies from a few thousand car
"| up IN one instance, a few years ago.
",'Iy %oo0O carats were disposed of in
Ol 10 a single purchaser. The stones
arc '9ken to London to be cut.
biologists think they know lust how the
m'inohds Of the South African fields were
"'ue uE nature The surface laver Of the
'.u uneleabouts was originaly-that is to
T. ages ago-a carbonaceous shale. or. in
.'I words. a kind of rock containing a
.'-e percentage of carbon As everybody
ms cdlpoh IN its pure state is the sole
''lerid of the diamond Bv and bv col
,aule stuff from the bowels of the earth
'oullted up through the shale and the
oolInouS heat thus generated caused the
t'loon I'D the rock to crystalline out i'm the
'm oil diamonds. So, now. as a result.
'G Is vast body of blue clay. through
-lyo gems are scattered like plums in a
r'''u-' ana so evenly are they distrib-
. mat 100 tons of the material can be
o+0''a on to yield about 100 carats OF the
ICONS stones. The deposits, apparent
H,dre ineXhaustible
r. t'9 is usual in such cases, the discovery
uldmonds in South Africa was purely
t 'eH'ai. y stranger, "trekking" through
e country stopped over night at the
VuSo OF hospitable Dutch farmer, who
$3.50 nm as curiosities some bright
h,oS round by his children, which the
n used as playthings. The visitor sus-
~'' mat they were diamonds. and. be-
10 1u honest man, suggested the idea
q ~ most who, taking them 10 the near
NAL euF' so d them for sum sufficient TO
ns,l 0iln rich for life. Later on many val
nv, stones were found in the gravels Of
N. aoai and Gong-One Rivers. but il was
te 1",u l60 that prospectors came upon
ao,.g,al' source of supply from which these
fbo .A'al gems had been washed out by
rs,u'dIns. Even then only the yeliowish
nnl,l edfth was worked. and when these