The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-17
HOW DIAMONDS ARE MINED.
A Weeks Harvest at I<imberIe.
Amounted to 100000.

The methods of compelling Mother Earth
to disgorge her hidden stores of wealth
be ii in the form of diamonds gold. sill
yer, copper, or coal-appear to be much
the same everywhere. You first find your
mine, your reef or crater of blue clay,
as ii is at Kimberley, and then you bore
hole down to it, which you call shaft.
Sometimes, as at Kimberley. you can be-
gin at the top, but sooner or later, you
have to resort to burrowing laterally or
perpendicularly. Then the thing you are
in search Of is wound up on a pulley,
over a wheel such as you see in any train
journey through the Midlands and The
north of England.
The blue clay-as everyone knows by
this time-is found in circular pits tonce
craters) filed up from an unknown depth;
they have not touched bottom at 1000
feet. The enclosing walls are basalt and
then a layer of shale Is superposed. In
the open, or through shafts. the clay IS
blasted and carried on trucks. by endless
wires to the floors" The trans run on
double lines. one set of trucks carrying
the clay, the other returning empty The
floors constitute one Of the most inter
esting features of the place. The Garth
which contains The dfamofrds becomes very
friable when exposed to sun and air, and
crumbles like loama Tie harder rock,
consolidated under tremendous pressure,
has TO be pulverized by crushing.
Thousands of acres are enclosed by
barbed wire fencing-a much disguised
blessing of South AfricaGand there hid
den in the molderipg earth. are hun
dreds of thousands of pounds worth of
precious stones. Some, OF course, become
detached, and are picked up by the
boys" and generally accounted for,
though, in spite of the necessarily strin-
gent /. D. B. laws, it Is difficult to believe
that none fails to redch The sorting house.
When sunshine and atmosphere have
done their work, the ferpmposed clay Is
taken back from the floors and committed
to the puIsators The matter is shot into
receivers and passes down to the pulsa-
tor, graduated plane of metal, which as
the name Implies. is shaken by machinery
latterally. as man shakes sieve in his
hand. The different steps OF the pulsa-
tor are covered with grease to which the
diamonds-at least, all of any size-ad-
here as the broken clay rushes over min
gled with a stream of water. The top
step generally manages to catch the
larger stones, and very few escape to the
lowest grade. The refuse, however, is all
carefully handsorted by natives, whose
natural quickness OF eye and deftness of
finger have been improved by long prac-
tice.
Many Of the hands so employed are con-
victs, hired by the Government to the
company. These victims of civilization
most of them are guileless of any crimi-
nal appearance-much prefer this work to
the dull. monotony OF prison labor. The
sight Of these convicts engaged in sor ing
out minute gems from the dross might
suggest many reflections. The contrast is
the most striking; at one end of the scale
diamonds representing the highest luxury
of civilization. at the other the native to
whom European culture means the mag
istrate and the politician. However. IL
the native criminal noraliZes-which |
am sure that. as rule. he Is far too SEN
sible to do-he can chuckle at the idea
that each stone he extracts may easily
prove an incentive to his fellows on a
higher plane to go and do likewise.
The sticky matter, holding little but the
gems. is thoroughly washed out. and the
deposit is ready for the sorter. Diamonds
are by no means unlovely in their uncut
condition, and there is no mistaking the
slightly greasy feeling of the real gem
die, am told, to its Incompatible hard
ness.
The stones are then inspected and
weighed, and are ticketed according to
their value in little heaps on counter of
the sorting room. Thus, the first heap of
a weeks Cleanup will contain, perhaps
Il uOLeH idTst uiduiOuuS, pelletI III SHdpe
and color and without a flaw; they may
be of any value from 92O0 TO 92. coo.
Then come smaller ones of the same
spotless character; next in value are the
large yellow stones; then the fiawed
whites. and so on down to the heaps of
tiny gems like coarse sugar, white and
brown. Roughly there We're, l suppose
some GS00O0 worth on the counter, rep
resenting the output of several days. The
company does not OF course, cut its own
diamonds-that is special industry of
Amsterdam-nor do they sell them direct
ly to the diamond merchants. syndi
cate contracts to take the whole product
of the mines at a fixed price-so much a
carat-and as, owing TO the war and other
causes, diamonds have been very, very
dear lately, the syndicate must have made
large profits. tT-.4