the stones are carefully assorted according to size, colour, and purity, and made up in parcels ready for shipping.
The
marketing of diamonds, if fully told, is a story in itself and
possesses many phases of interest. Formerly local buyers, who
represented the leading diamond merchants of the world, competed at
the South African mines for their product, but for the past several
years the De Beers Company has sold in advance its annual production to
a syndicate of London diamond merchants who have representatives
residing in Kimberley, and this is now the medium through which both
the product of the De Beers and the Premier mines exclusively reach the
markets of the different nations of the world.
The
daily production of diamonds is put away in parcels until there has
accumulated about fifty thousand carats of De Beers and Kimberley
diamonds, the stones from the two sources being mixed, and locally
termed " pool goods." The sorters separate and classify them for
accurate valuation as follows: 1, Close goods; 2, Spotted stones; 3,
Rejection cleavage; 4, Fine cleavage; 5, Light-brown cleavage; 6,
Ordinary and rejection cleavage; 7, Flats; 8, Naats;
