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PRECIOUS STONES.
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565
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to 13,000,000 gallons of water arc annually hoisted from the Kimberley mine at a cost of 6 pence per load of 100 gallons.
In
addition to many miles of aerial tramways, there are over 170 miles of
tramway around the four Kimberley mines, 2,500 horses, mules, and
oxen,and 350 steam engines, representing 4,000 horsepower ,are employed
in the works. For labor, £1,000,000 are annually expended, and over
£1,000,000 for fuel and other supplies. The gross capital of the
companies is nearly £10,000,000. Over 10,000 natives, each receiving £1
per week, and 1,200 European overseers at an average wage of £5, are
employed. It is now proposed to consolidate all the companies into an
enormous diamond trust, with a capital of £10,000,000, but at the
present quotations of the shares of the company they are valned at
over £14,000,000. The supposition long held that this unification would
ultimately be accomplished is partly confirmed by the report, this
spring, that the house of the Rothschilds, of London, is about to put
in operation a project for the consolidation of the diamond mines into
one gigantic trust for the regulation of prices and production.
The
South African mines yielded during the last ten years 27,878,587
carats, valued at £31,717,341. The yield for 1887 was 3,640,899 carats,
worth £4,033,582 at a valuation of £1 2s. 1-1/2d. a carat. In December,
18S7, a single sale of rough diamonds was recorded of £150,000, and in
February, 1888, of £250,000, or $750,000 and $1,250,000, respectively.
The average value of a carat of diamonds for some years from the
respective mines has been as follows:
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The
product of the latter mine, while only one one hundred and twenty-fifth
of the weight in carats, was worth one sixty-second of the entire
product, the stones averaging much finer quality.
The approximate annual yields for the last ten years have been as
follows:
Yield of South African diamonds during the past ten years.
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