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Two Big and Valuable Holes in “South- Africa: Ingenious Methods of Obtain ing the Precious Gems. ‘The Da Beers and the Kimberly mines, says Lord Randolph Churchill in the Popular Science Monthly, are probably the ttwo Biggest holes which greedy man has ever dug into ‘the earth, the area of the former at the surface being thirteen acres,’ with a depth of 450 feet, the area and depth of the latter being even greater. These maines are no longer worked from the surface, but from shafts anuk at some distance from the original holes, and penetrating to the blue ground by transverse drivings at depths varying from 500 to 1200 feet. The blue grounid, when extracted, is carried in small iron trucks to the ‘floors,”? “These are made by removing the bush and grass from a fairly level Piece of gronnd; the land is then rolled and made as hard and smooth as possible. These ‘luors’ are about 200 acres in extent. They are covered to the depth of about a foot with the blue ground, which for a time remains on them without much manipulation. The next of the sun and moisture soon have a wonderful effect upon it. Large pieces which were as hard as ordinary sandstone when taken from the nine, soon commence to crumble. At this stage of the work, the winning of the diamonds assumes more the nature of farming than of mining; the ground is continually arrowed to assist pnlverization by exposing the larger pieces to the action of the sun and rain. The blue ground from Kimberly Mine becomes quite well pulverized in three month, while that from’ De Beers requires double that time: ‘The longer the ground remains exposed, the better it is for washing.” The process of exposure being completed, the blue ground is then carried to very large, elaborate and costly washing machines, in which, by means of the action of running water, the dia mondesre-separated from the ordi nary earth. It may be mentioned that in this process one hundred loads of blue ground are concentrated into one load of diamondiferous stuff. An other machine, the ‘pulsator’, then separates this latter stuff, which ap pears (ober a mass of blue_and dark ‘pebbles of all shanpes, Into four differ pulb sizegy= Which then pass on to the ‘wearlers: ’whie. assorting is ihen done on tables; first while wet by, white men, and then dry by natives.’ The assorters work with a kind of trowel, and their accuracy in detect ing and separating the diamond from the eight different kinds of mineral formations which reach them is al most unerring.
Newspaper Details
Americus Times Recorder
Americus, Georgia, US
Tue, Sep 27, 1892
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Charlie H.
USA 17 Jul 2026
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