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GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES.
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the
entire diamond producing industry of the Union has necessarily had on
the industrial conditions of the country. In this statement the output
of diamonds in the Transvaal during 1914 is given as 1,101,264 carats,
valued at $4,948,704, as compared with 2,156,897 carats, valued at
$13,269,305, in 1913.
KONGO.
Vice Counsl General Harry A. McBride, of Boma,1
Belgian Kongo, gives the following notes on diamonds of that country:
The principal mines are in the Kasai district, near Tshikapa, and are
operated by the Belgo-American Co., Societe Forestiere et Miniere du
Congo. American prospectors are working in the region and have met with
some success. Two of the more important shipments of diamonds have been
one of nearly 8,000 carats in November, 1913, sold in Antwerp at an
average price of $5.79 per carat and another early in 1914 of 4,884
carats, sold to the same firm at an average price of $5.22 per carat.
The
diamonds from the Kasai River district are obtained from river beds,
but prospecting is in progress on eight matrix deposits or "pipes" in
the Kundelunger region. In the Luanza "pipe," 9,315 loads of ground
were washed to the end of December, 1913, and yielded 369 small
diamonds weighing about 187 carats.
JADE.
NEW ZEALAND.
According to a correspondent of the Mining Journal2
there was an active demand, before the European war, for the New
Zealand jade or nephrite in Germany. A photograph accompanies the
article showing a bowlder of nephrite, weighing about If tons, which
had recently been snipped to Germany. Large deposits of the jade have
been located, and, a company (The New Zealand Greenstone (Ltd.)) has
prepared to work them along with the richly colored serpentines in the
same region. Both the serpentine and the jade have been called New
Zealand greenstone, but the serpentine is used for ornamental building
purposes and the jade for smaller ornamental and gem purposes.
i Daily Cons, and Trade Repts., Dec. 7 and 8,1914. 2 Mining Journal (London), July 25, 1914.
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