The production of diamonds during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, by the De Beers Consolidated Mines1
amounted to 2,081,386 carats, as compared with 2,293,468 carats in
1913. Actual sales of diamonds, plus the increase of stocks taken at
the cost of production, amounted to £5,123,336, as compared with
£6,297,782 in 1913. The total production of blue ground in 1914
amounted to 7,166,829 loads of 16 cubic feet, as compared with
7,382,216 loads in 1913. The total quantity of blue ground and tailings
washed during 1914 was 7,406,278 loads, as compared with 8,702,289
loads in 1913. Stocks of blue ground and lumps on the floors increased
from 10,803,054 in 1913 to 11,331,022 in 1914. The yield in carats of
diamonds per load of blue ground washed remained at 0.36 at the De
Beers mine, increased from 0.27 to 0.28 at the Wesselton mine, and
decreased from 0.42 to 0.38 and from 0.23 to 0.21 in the Bultfontein
and Dutoit-span mines, respectively. The De Beers mine has not been
reopened since it was closed in 1908. Developments at the Kimberly mine
consisted chiefly in the removal of mixed reef rock and blue ground
formed by mud rushes.
The
Premier Diamond Mining Co., of the Transvaal, ceased operations on
August 10, 1914. The production of diamonds up to that date is reported2
as amounting to 1,417,755 carats, a decrease of 211,732 carats, as
compared with the corresponding period of 1913, and a total decrease of
690,228 carats, as compared with the financial year to October 31,
1913.
Diamond mining practically ceased in South Africa toward the close of 1914. Consul Edwin N. Gunsaulus,3
of Johannesburg, reported to the State Department in January, 1915,
that all diamond mines in the Cape, Transvaal, and Orange Free State
Provinces were closed. Later he comments 4 on the effect the closing of practically
i De Beers Consolidated Mines Twenty-sixth Ann. Rpt., for the year ending June 30,1914.
2 African World, quoted in Jewelers' Circular-Weekly, Feb. 17,1915.
s Jewelers' Circular-Weekly, Jan. 6,1915.
* Daily Cons, and Trade Repts., June 25,1915.
