Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-04

49, 49, - ~ - AAANe N0AA ~ w. -
has 10000 employees. $500 white and IT,
800 natives. 1t has built a model village
| for its employees. 1t has evolved special
| stringent peculiar laws to prevent or pun
ish unlicensed sale or purchase OF the
rough diamonds On every side its DOM
| mating influence is perceptible.
How Diamonds Are Mined.
At the Dutoitspan mine I went down
500 feet in the elevator cage to the level
on which the track runs over which In
electrically operated trucks the blue
ground is brought from the vein to the
shaft. Here 1t is seized by machinery
which HOSTS 1t to the surface in ten-ten
slips that are filled and automatically
empty themselves every few seconds
Diamond mining at Kimberley Is now all
underground. At first the open-mining
| system was followed, until the excava-
tons were so great that the side walls
| Of the holes caved in, covering the blue
ground faster than it could be removed.
inspected the vast hole at the earths
surface above the upper end Of the oval
shaped funnel, which constitutes the
DutOitspan mine.
1t Is now abandoned and desolate. But
the imagination can restore 1t to the
open-minfng conditions. when 1t swarmed
| with people and when the air space
above the mine from it's bottom to the
edges OF the precipitous banks of the
chasm was SO filled with cables. carrying
buckets to convey blue ground to the sur
race, as to obscure the view. This chasm
had reached depth OF 400 feet, when in
1886 an avalanche Of blue ground and
reef crashed down, fortunately at the
noon dinner hour, when the mine was al
| most deserted, burying the eighteen UNI
fortunate workmen who happened to be
| at the bottom of the pit, and running the
! open mine.
The shaft through which the blue ground
| Is mined is not sunk in or near the dia-
| away to be safe from disturbance as the
sides of the vent hole cave in on ac-
| count Of removal of the diamond-bearing
rock. From the shaft access is had to
the vein by tunnels at different levels.
| The blue ground Is mined directly under
| the surface of the open workings and
drops by gravity to the eight-hundred-
foot level. where 1t is gathered in truck
trains. holding ten tons, which move
automatically and deposit their burdens
in a ten-ton slip. which is then hoisted
with lightning rapidity to the surface and
enptied automatically into other trucks,
which carry 1t to great fields. surround
ed by impiegnable wire fencing, upon the
surface OF which 1t Is spread about a foot
In depth, as If it were fertilizer. There
the blue ground remains for months until
1T disintegrates into powder and small
Jumps. This natural pulverization is the
4
ough method which has ever been devised.
| These curious fields, covering several
| thousand acres, are narrowed to ex-
pose all parts of the blue ground to the
| sun and rain, and suggest diamond farm
ing rather than diamond mining.
| The disintegrated conglomerate is then
conveyed in trains of trucks to the wash
ing machines and. diluted with water.
revolving rows Of teeth keep all solid
matter In solution, and force hard sub
stances like diamonds away from the
center Of the pan where the lighter
wastage overflows. Under these condi-
lions. the force of gravity takes dia-
Inonds and other heavy stones to the
bottom of the pan. This concentrate of
dtamondiferous mud Is drawn at short
intervals from the bottom of the pans and
sent to the pu.sator. 1t constitutes l
per cent Of the original blue ground. The
other 30 per cent now goes as worthless
to the dump, which in color Is slaty
gray compromise between the white
cyanide dumps OF the Rand and the
black dumps Of the colliery at Wankie
At the pulsator the diamond concen-
| trate, diluted with water, passes through
screens Of different sized mesh, by which
| process the stones are roughly sorted, and
| then runs over inclined surfaces covered
| with vaseline. which catches and holds
! the diamonds and rejects the rest. This
! diamond-grease amalgam is scraped off
| every two hours, and by boiling the
D C0SC 10 SCPdi 0tCQ HUN lic OldIhOHuS
and other heavy stones. and the latter are
| then sorted by experts In accordance with
their quality and SIZE Among the men
| separat the tiniest diamonds from gar
nets were some OF the 1900 convicts who
by arrangement with the government are
| employed In the mines, working under
| guard.
Diamonds by the Cupful.
! At the pulsator I saw a days product OF
several Of the different mines. these prod
ucts being kept in separate receptacles.
The diamonds of the different mines
have each characteristic color and
specialization. and those from one
deposit can often be identified and
separated by experts even if mingled
with stones from another mine. The
washington mines product. for in
stance, when spread out showed as a
characteristic many beautiful white trans
parent diamonds Of medium size. In the
Dutoitspan mine display were as char
acteristic two large yellow diamonds, one
worth $1,000.
| The largest diamond found in South
| Africa. and perhaps the largest in the
world, was the Cullinan diamond, over
| 5000 carats. found at the Premier mine
| near Pretoria. 1t Is now the property of
the King Of England. and part of the
| crown Jewels.
The volume Of annual product Of the
DC bCCio EuHcS mcdSuISS accurately
business prosperity or depression in the
| United States. The supply of diamonds
\ s made to At the demand, and that de-
mand is determined by the condition of
| the pocketbook Of the worlds greatest
diamond buyer. Uncle Sam. The De
| Beers diamonds are sold In advance to u
syndicate Of London diamond merchants,
who are equally interested in not per-
hitting the worlds diamond market to
/ be overstocked.
| I also visited one of the great com
pounds'-that Of the Bultfontein mine-in
which the employees are virtually i'm
prisoned during their term of service,
which Is. as minimum, four months,
| and which usually lasts for years. The
compound Is great open space surround
| ed by buildings opening inward, which
| include the quarters Of the men, the adj
| ministration Offices, the hospital, the COM
panys stores and butcher shops and a
chapel for religious services In the CEN
| ter OF the compound Is bathing. clothes
washing structure. in which some Kaffirs
whose time expired next day were pre-
pairing for departure by washing out their
blankets. feat accomplished by walking
| over and treading vigorously upon the
wet blankets. The men in the compound
during their term of service may not leave
| 1t except to go by tunnel to the mine
shaft to work In the mine. They get sat
| isfactory wages and percentage Of the
| value Of large diamonds which they indi-
vidually find and turn in. The men are
| we'll treated. and there is less labor trOu-
| BILE at the diamond mines than In other
are barred and guarded like prisons. Com
Mir tod Q ylyfrn foNo varnfn fIa4