Diamond Mines Diamonds Mining

There are plenty of diamond mines worldwide, but very little for a pink diamond,  among others are are in Botswana, in the in the Kalahari Desert, Debswana Diamond Company. Another bigger diamond mine is the Williamson mine in Tanzania. One of the biggest producer of diamonds is the Republic of South Africa and one the most famous mines there is the Cullinan Diamond Mine where continuously big stones are found.

A rather small producer is the Central African Republic. The diamonds found in Cuango River area in Angola and at nearby Sierra Leone are also known as conflict or blood diamonds, The diamond mines of Sierra Leone are located in the hilly terrain north of the town of Kenema. At Ghana small numbers of alluvial diamonds are found from time to time.

This was a mystery until the South African kimberlite pipes were discovered. In 1905, De Beers general manager Gardner F. Williams published the -The Diamond Mines of South Africa-, but it didn't clear the picture on how and where diamonds form. In 1932, his son, Alpheus F. Williams, published his own work, -The Genesis of the Diamond-, with three theories.

Some geologists thought that diamonds crystallized out of kimberlite magma during the time when the magma was solidifying in the pipe. After a long back and forward over dozens of years the picture how diamonds are formed got clear. The stones are not products of the kimberlite but, as components of xenoliths, a diamond stone is more or less passenger on the kimberlite express to the surface.
This discovery is the result of mid to late 20th-century research: first by modern

geology research and second by using latest analytical studies utilizing sophisticated instruments for the investigation of the mineral components of the inclusions in diamonds. Research on inclusions in diamonds brought reasonable results only in the 1970's, with the availability of advanced X-ray diffraction techniques, electron and ion microprobe analyses, and the dating of trace isotopes. With this techniques 22 mineral materials have been identified as inclusions in diamonds, naturally diamond jewelry such as a diamond ring has a better value if there are less inclusions plus the right diamond cut.

Diamonds come up from depths

in the range of 150-300 km below the surface. Radiometry dating of trace isotopes of Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, and U-Pb in the inclusions has revealed that all of the diamonds are around 3 billion years old. Since the discovery of the first African kimberlite, the worldwide hunt for more such formations has revealed a pattern of distribution: kimberlite are almost always found within the innermost, stable parts of continental shields. This is the general picture for most of the world's diamonds, but there are differences. E.g. in New South Wales, Australia about two million diamond crystals, with an aggregate weight of about 500,000 carats, have been found in alluvium in the Copeton-Bingara area, but no kimberlite have been found in the area. So there is still room for research and ideas where diamonds come from.

make billions of dollars every year and the people who actually dig the diamonds out of the earth, the river or elsewhere are let suffer. Almost all the so called "white" people in the business are Jewish, Lebanese and English. The question here is how can the industry help the diggers and what are the humanitarian and development responsibilities of the industry? A meaningful process and practical measures to help diggers to escape severe poverty. Over a million African diggers suffer from extreme poverty due to rotten economies and corruption. In most west African countries in the rural areas are no jobs, no roads, no potable water, no electricity and no hope. Natural most resources are not used to develop local economies, they only are used by corrupt politicians and the diamond buyers to get rich quick, but a most valuable pink diamond is in quantities only available in Australia.

Diamonds mined at Botswana have a high ratio of top quality to industrial quality diamonds the country is the leading diamond producer in terms of production by value. Aside of the big mines as indicated above plenty of smaller mines are working. Production is controlled by Debswana Diamond Co., a joint venture of 50% owned by De Beers and 50% by the government. Diamonds of the Orapa mine have mostly some shades of yellow. The Jwaneng Mine located in the south of the country is the second most productive diamond mine in the world, only behind the Argyle mine in Australia, relative to carat-weight and the world's number one relative to value.

Zimbabwe is a newcomer in the Diamond mine business in 2006 huge diamond deposits were discovered which are mined now, here is a picture from the Marange Diamond Mine in eastern Zimbabwe.

From the Cullinan Mine, this are all white gems, a pink diamond this days comes from Australia.

Until around 1903 the diamond mines around Kimberley had supplied all of South Africa's diamonds in that year the Premier mine went into production. Also in 1903-after the famous "Cullinan" diamond had been found in the Premier mine.

The Cullinan diamond was presented to King Edward VII, and 105 separate diamonds were cut from it, the largest became the Great Star of Africa with 530.2 carats and the smaller, the Star of Africa with 317.4 carats they are the biggest faceted diamond gems in the world. This mine also holds another world record itā's the oldest of the kimberlite formed deposits, somewhere between 1,100 and 1,200 million years old.

In 1922 De Beers bought up all 

shares of the Premier mine.Cullinan was knighted by Edward VII, and became a South African politician; he died in Johannesburg in 1936.

A 507-carat gem stone with white clear color was found in Sept. 09 in the Cullinan mine in south Africa together with two more over 100 carat gem stones. The Cullinan mine was also the source of several huge diamond stones in the past, among them the biggest diamond in the world's so far all this stones get real valuable after the right diamond cut.

In the Cullinan mine unusually large and pure diamonds have been found over the years. In the early 2009 a blue colored diamonds from the Cullinan mine was auctioned, the gemstone achieved a price of 9.5 million U.S. dollars. In 2008 a comparable gem was sold at an auction for 18.4 million US dollars.

When the Portuguese discovered the first diamonds in their new colony a decree was issued that all of them are the property of the Portuguese kingdom state and all diamond mining is a Crown monopoly. This policy was the reason that

nothing happen concerning diamond mining for a long time. All diamond mining in Brazilian Diamond Fields from 1725-1865 was in alluvial deposits, only the mid-20th-century hundreds of kimberlite outcrops were found. There are plenty of diamond fields in the southern half of Brazil and the richest sites stretch along the Jequitinhonha River north of the town of Tejuco (Diamantina). Diamonds are found in gupiaras means coluvial terraces above the streambeds and gravel deposits in the streams. A systems of hoses, sluices, pumps and washing crates is used to find the diamonds local people also search the area. With the machinery they produce about 1 carat of diamonds for each 100 cubic meters of gravel.

A large-scale diamond rush started in the 1960's, when alluvial diamonds were discovered in the Morro Vermelho Formation, high-quality diamonds were found and that attracted several major diamond mining companies to start searching for diamonds as a result more than 50 kimberlite pipes were discovered. Places at the southern tip of the Rondonia province and at the northwestern part of Mato Grosso province also have large deposits of diamonds. Mining is not allowed since this is protected homeland of the Cinta Larga People; but illegal miners donā't care and estimates are that diamonds of around 50 million dollars are

smuggled to Belgium last year where they are bought, cut and polished mainly by the Jewish community in Antwerp.

In Juina Province, Mato Grosso over 130,000 carats of diamonds were found during the starting phase in 1995, including large stones of up to 500 carats and pink diamonds.