Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-09-26
of washington and their present gers
seral manager lis Mr.. Alpheus Williams,

seral manager is Mr.. Alpheus Williams,
5i1is son. AZ
+ In another place i shall speak Of the
workmen and tell how they are han
died outside the mines. An army or
over 10000 is here employed and of
these more than $4,000 are natives, who
are not allowed to go outside during the.
terms of their con tracts.
But come: with me and take I. q look
fatgtfe Dutoitspan. This Is the mine
which was discovered by the farmer
when he was building a clay hut. 1t
lis the biggest of all the mines of the
DE Beers company, nd 50 large tina T
the KimbeENey pipe and the Del Beers
something like s15. 10000 900 worth Of liza
tnouds every ! 2 months, could be lost
inside It. 1T has thirty-eight miles of
tunnels in its underground workings,
and that although It is mot. yet one
third as deep as the Kimberley,
Before entering the mine was
shown the maps Of the surveyors. The.
blue ground area covers about 80
#ucreS and this Is AL drawn To a scale
so that one can tell the condition Of
every tunnel from the surface doWn to
the 75O-foot level where the
been sunk outside the pipe. and tun-
Bnels8 have been run in at intervals
#of 40 feet to get the diamond ca n out
BY this shaft this 30-acre pipe mas tllhs
been explored to Il depth equal4to one
and onc-half times the height OF the
washington monument. and the blue.
ground has been found peppefed with
diamond throughout. From some Of
THE upper levels much of the ground
has been extracted. but mining5is now
going on at every level. the amount M OF
earth taken out decreasing unit at the
bottom there are little than the
tracks used to carry the cars of blue
clay to the shaft. ~. E.
y All the ore IS taken from the lowest
level Great wells have been SUNK
through the. pine from the top TO bot
TOM nnd the blue ground ofs5,eacfl$
height is carried through tunnels To-
these wells and dropped into RESET
fvoirs atSthes bottom. There tits load
ed byAgraNitS into the cars which \ carry
1T To the shaft. At present they are
every day. -Four thousand negroes fairs
employed, and in busy sea SONS Sons the ne
miners work night and day
SCENES IN THE MINES.
Ii was in company with Mr. Fuller
that l went through the Duteitspan.
The mines are dirty and the rocll}is SO :
sharp that 1t cuts one S shoes. For this !
reason we were given boots of sole lea
Their such as are used by the miners,
and were clad in miners clothes.
s Entering the shaft, we dropped QUICK
w TO the E15U-IOOl4lGNel anu IuStuG W
way by foot through the tunnels into
the great pipe. We Went along ascnr
track, passing trains of this blue I
ground hauled by American electric
locomotives. As the cars reached the
shaft they We're dumped. without ste
ping. Their contents fan into q g, great
iron skip and a touch of button
sends them to the top. The arrange
1nents are such that two boys can un-
load 1000 cars in eight hours, and 50
that, working all day, they can hoist
1900 cars to the surface
ing by r. asked Mr.. Fuller to give me
some idea of the profits of the mining.
He replied that the fDutoitspan was
one OF the richest$of the De Beers com
pany's properties. and that the profits
on the ore then going up was some
81 800 an hour day and night. or SO per
minute week in and week out. In adj
5dition to this the blue ground pays the
mining expenses, amounting TO Slaa, an
per month, and of that more than $l0V.-
900 is for wages alone. Talk about
yourf golden streams. AS for me
would prefer one Of these streams of
diamonds. IF !,
& 1t il nov over 40 years since the first
African diamond was found. man
named (,'Rellly.,l2 the hunter-inadel the
first diamond discovery. 1t was When /
he was stopping overnight Win y I,oeE !
farmer not far off from Kimberley. {
During the evening he saw the children
playing with some beautiful pebbles.
He admired the stones and took some
home with Shin To his surprise5he
found one would cut glass, and upon
showing lit to a jeweler he was told
that it was diamond and worth $1,000.
Two years after that another big
stone was discovered by a Hottentot
who fra fled it to this ga M. BOer farmer
for $4,000. The BoerS sold 1t to a idia-. |
mond merchant and it was sent to
England and was eventually sold to the
Countess of Dudley for 100000.