New Britain herald., 1922-08-31
DIAMOND RUSH ID
 KIMBERLEY FIELDS
New Fields Discovered Which
 Will Rival Famous Mines

rush" such as frontier America
 knew In its free-land days, but IT
 this case to peg out claims in a new fly discovered diamond field was men, toned in recent dispatches from
 South Africa. This new diamond country opens up possibilities of 6
 rival to the great Kimberly diamond
 field in the same general region. tho
 worlds greatest source of the spark. | ling white gems.
 The methods of mining diamond: at Kimberly, which may be followed in the new fields fl the formation proves the same, are outlined in n bulletin from the Washington, D. c Headquarters of the. National Geogra- phic society.
 Like Needle in Haystack.
 The mines at Kimberly" says the bulletin, ''are In very ancient vol canoes which ages ago lost all sem blance Of activity. But during their youth the great heat and pressure of these volcanoes created gigantic laboratories in their depths in which thousands of the hard white carbon
 
 created The precious little Jumps are embedded in a great volume Of worthless rock known as blue ground, and under old conditions were as hard to find as the proverbial needle in a haystack. But just as a clever searcher could probably To- cate his needle with a powerful mag net. despite the straw. so engineers have evolved mechanical means diamonds from the many tons of dirt which they are hidden,
 The effectiveness with which Ma ture has concealed the crystals is evi- denced by the fact that the blue ground brought up from the depths of the mines and carrying it's price less gems, is spread out in the open for four months to year to the weather The diamonds are perfectly safe, for officials who have walked over the weathering floors for many years assert that they have never found a diamond in this way AS the blue ground weathers it crum- bes, and great harrows like those used on the bonanza farms of the west are dragged over it to facilitate the process.
 Gems Trapped in Grease.
 Eventually the material is broken down into relatively fine particles. It is then taken in trucli-loads to the mechanical plant of the mine for treatment. The ground is mixed with water in great mixing machines and passed over screens of fine wire mesh ing.
 When as much as possible of the foreign material has been removed in this way, the coarse residue, con- taining the diamonds, is passed over sloping, vibrating tables covered with thick grease. Because of some little understood physical property, dia monds stick to the grease while the worthless material flows over the edge of the tables. The grease with l it's load of crystals is then scraped | into perforated container and heat | ed by steam. The grease melts away | and leaves the small but highly valu- able object of these months of work.
 How widely spaced the diamonds are in their matrix of earth can be shown best perhaps by comparison of volumes: The earth taken out in a year by the largest mining com pany in the field, would form a cube more than 43o feet in each dimen- | sion This would fill a large city block to a height of more than 30 | stories. The diamonds found in this vast amount of earth would fill only two or three desk drawers or a cubical box less than three feet in each dimension. But these few pecks of stones for which mountain was moved were worth perhaps in excess of s25, 1000.
 Laborers Voluntary ENiIes.
 "One of the most striking features of the mining of diamonds by the arge companies in Kimberly is the existence of the unique labor com pounds. Since diamonds are so easily stolen, only those native laborers are employed who will agree to enlist for 1t least three months and remain for hat period (when not in the mines or on the 'foorsD within a walled enclosure.
 In the largest compound, covering more than four acres, 5000 men live. Not only are these compounds sur ,ounded by high walls, but they are llso covered overhead by fine wire netting so that diamonds cannot be hrown outside to confederates.
 ''Laborers entering or leaving must go through pro- ;edure not unlike that when enter ng foreign country having strict and customs laws, They , must pass a health examination and f diseased are rejected or placed in quarantine. Only certain articles may )e taken into a compound, and no boots, shoes or other hard or solid may be taken out-only , ,lothing which has been searched. n the largest of the compounds, i where some laborers have chosen to tay for years, are stores, church, 7 . school, a hospital and dispensary, -thletic grounds and swimming ,ool The manager of the com pound is a sort of mayor and judge oiled into one and is called upon to { in lr,a ra bia disrhtee T..