DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA 279
colonial
officials are being investigated. The Transvaal and Orange River Colony
should be equally free, as the governments of those colonies are
practically partners in the mines within their borders, and therefore
probably will not allow a syndicate operated for the benefit of the
Cape Colony mines, to restrain their output for the purpose of holding
up prices to a figure profitable to the Cape mines. The diamond
industry is in a critical condition. For twenty years the De Beers
Consolidation, having control of the supply and aided by an abnormally
good demand, has made prices, holding supply to the demand. That
control lost, it appears probable that the ancient millstones of
economic principles will once more grind supply and demand to a
natural adjustment with the cost of production, though it must be
admitted that by shrewd manipulation, prices now (1910) have been
restored to the levels existing before the panic.
In
1908 the De Beers group of mines produced 2,177,191 carats. These were
not all sold and prices realized were lower, £800,000 only being
distributed in dividends as against £2,550,000 in 1907. The De Beers
and Dutoitspan mines were closed. The average yield per 100 loads in
1908 was about the same in the De Beers, Kimberley and Bultfontein as
in 1907, but a little less in the Wesselton and Dutoitspan.
A
new alluvial deposit was discovered July 16, 1908, at Harrisdale, 14
miles from Kimberley. The gravel runs from four inches to three feet
thick. £20,000 worth of diamonds of excellent quality were reported in
the first six weeks, averaging £8 per carat.
The Transvaal produced in 1908, 2,184,490 carats
