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African Diamonds.
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Arrived
at the surface, the blue earth is conveyed to a platform of
considerable altitude, from whence it is allowed to fall to the ground
below. By this means the earth is broken up and crushed until the
process has reduced it down to the size of a walnut, or less. It is
then searched for large diamonds, and after these have been abstracted
the stuff is gravitated through a machine consisting of six plates,
each of which is covered with a layer of fat. In passing over these
plates the diamonds are retained by the fat, to which they adhere,
whilst the refuse is rejected and passed through the machine. So
reliable is this " separator " in its working that we have, on
the authority of Mr. C, D. Rudd, who has just returned from South
Africa, the remarkable statement that go per cent, of the
diamonds contained in the blue earth are found on the first plate, and
he has never known of one being found below the second plate.
It
is estimated that every load (a load weighs about 1,600 pounds) of blue
ground from the Kimberley mine yields on an average from one and a
quarter to one and a half carats of Diamonds ; from De Beer's mine, one
and a fifth to one and a third carats ; from Du Toit's Pan one-sixth to
one-fifth carat ; and from Bultfontein only one-fifth to one-third of a
carat.
The
mines of De Beers, Kimberley, Du Toit's Pan, Bultfontein and Wesselton
are practically under the control of the powerful combination known as
" De Beers Consolidated Mines, Limited." This Company, of which the
Hon. Cecil Rhodes is Chairman, has a capital of £3,950,000.
In
order to prevent the theft of Diamonds at the mines, the native kaffirs
or " boys," employed at the Kimberley mines are confined in an enclosed
village, or
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