Ch. 12: Winning the Diamonds

Diamond Mines of South Africa by Gardner Williams

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	CHAPTER XII WINNING THE DIAMONDS T has been shown how resourceful engineering mastered the problem of the extraction of the diamond-bearing deposits swiftly and systematically, without injury to the mines. It was no less essential to advance and perfect the process of the winning of the diamond from the mass of extracted blue ground with corresponding speed and efficiency. For the handling of the mammoth bulk of breccia, through which the tiny, precious crystals were sprinkled in a proportion so infinitesimal, there was a practical call for every feasible stretch of invention in transportation, concentration, assorting of sizes, and final separation of the gems. The indispensable reconciliation of thoroughness in extraction with rapidity in working over the ground made the task greatly perplexing. It was only through years of experimenting and progressing from imperfect to improved designs that the present great diamond-winning plant of the mines was evolved. If this is still short of ideal suitability to the work, it is simply fair to observe how vast is the stride that has actually been made in a few recent years in diamond-winning methods, from the primitive Indian wooden shovels and drying mats, and the water holes and shaking plates of the Brazilian. As fast as the blue ground is dumped automatically from the skips into the ore bins, it is carried away in trucks by an endless wire rope haulage, driven by steam, to the depositing floors. These floors are made by removing the bush and grass from fairly level stretches of ground. After clearing the face of the ground, it is hardened and smoothed with heavy rollers until it

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