Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-09-26

7 These two finds set South Africa
crazy. Diamond seekers came at once
by the thousands, and the Vaal and
Orange rivers were BOON covered With
mining camps. Men went about every
where digging up the gravel and
became exhausted the miners spread
out over the country. and finally got
| here to Kimberley, which is 10 miles
from the Naal. One day Boer. discoN-
erred some diamonds in Il clay bed out
of which he was taking material to
It'd q mud hut, He kept on igging.
and the result was the Dutoitspan6
mine, which has proved one OF the rich
est diamond pipes ever found. About
the Same time other claims were ia ken
up and developed. and as a result came
the five great mines which now form the
basis of the De Beers syndicate.
81 AsSsthe5 miners went down into the
earth the area i'll which the precious
stones We're discovered became narrow
sel5 and narrower, until at last it was. in
each case found to consist entirely of
sort of blue rock or clay inside great
walls of other and harder rock. These
walls We're in the shape of q pipe and
9the pipes We're found TO extend down,
down. down into the earth. and each
was filed with this blue ground. As
the miners went down the diamonds
did not diminish. They We're found
everywhere plentifully scattered
through the blue clay, and this lis so
at the depths where they are mining
today, although in the Kimberley pipe
the lower levels are more than one-halfS
mile from the surface.
THE KIMBERLEY NINE. f.
The Kimberley mine gives one an {ex-S
2cellent3 idea Of how the diamonds lie5inS#
these pipes in the GARTH The pipe be-
gins with a great funnel which aat@the
f. top has q mouth covering 30 acres and
which slopes down to the pipe proper,
the inside5of which Is about eight acres,
fhe Kimberley mouth ISL judge,
about 100 feet wide, and 1T slopes even
sly down on all sides. The pipe itselfis
almost round. Its walls are o "a black !
rock; they are almost us regularly
shaped as though cut out by q chisel,
and they narrow only slightly as they
go down for more than $500 feet. For
that distance this area of eight acres
wasgall composed of blue rock carrying
diamonds. and the mine is producing
millions of dollars worth of diamonds
still. The first earth was dug up with
pick and shovel and washed ina rude
way. Then wires We're run down into
the mine and the blue ground was
carried up BY means Of them Ii t is nov
elevated by great engines through
shafts outside the mine itself. and a
continuous line5of steel cars rising all 4
day long Something like 100000 car
loads We're taken UP last year, and
there are now more than q million
loads Dad lying i. out on the floors in order
that the wind, the rain and the sun
may SO weather them that the dia-
5monds can h.s taken out. The value
per load Is only few dollars, but there
must be at least SO, 900, 900 worth Of lia-
monds in the ground on the Kimberley
floors
i walked around the Kimberley mine
With its manager. Mr. @. NJ. Henrotin, d
an American mechanical and mining
engineer. who graduated at Cornell in
the class of 1897, and tho son OF the
former president$of the iWomen's clubs
of the United States. He tells me there
are more than a million and a quar-
ter loads of this praciOus clay above
the level at (which his men are now
working.
UNDERGROUND IN THE DuToIT-
SPAN.
! We passed a5continuous line of such |
cars or our wa y, into the mine proper,
and then walked for miles through the
tunnels smade. lin the pipe to get out the
blue ground, Much5of the mine is I'M
lighted, and we had to pick our way
along with candles. jumping to this
side and that to avoid being run down
by the cars. The tunnels are just about
as high as ones head and just wide
enough for the cars to run through
them. They are cut here and there by |
cross tunnels, and at times we could |
see Az electric light at a crossing a
mile or SO in the distance.
Z BLASTING OUT DIAMONDS.
Everywhereswe went the natives We're
working. Here they We're loading the
blue rock upon cars. and there they |
We're dumping it down through the
wells to the reservoirs below. In one
place they We're blasting. The rock is
of such a nature that compressed air