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A typical diamond mine is often called simply an "open pit"-- but calling it a mere "pit" doesn't nearly
do it justice. It may be the size of several football fields, like this one--7000 ft wide, 4500 ft long and 720 ft deep!
Crawling around the floor of the pit are massive trucks,some over 30 ft tall. These trucks scoop up earth and pour it into
a rusher, where its broken down and x-rayed for gems--at the rate of 25 tons a minute. A mine typically has to move 250 tons
of rock, sand, and earth to recover one carat of diamond. Fewer than 1% of diamonds mined will produce polished diamonds bigger
than a carat.
Oh! and I nearly forgot to mention the daily explosion as seen in these pics. Workers place several tons of dynamite on the
eastern "wall" of the mine, sirens sound, everyone runs and hides, and yeah, they have to wear hard hats Then comes a earth-rattling roar and BIG bang. Once the dust
settles (literally), the fleet of trucks return to scoop up debris, and pour it into the crusher.
Now with Underground mining, its even more impressive. Try taking an elevator down 1600 feet with no stops at sporting goods
or ladies lingerie. You are surrounded by rock on all sides!! Now most of these modern underground mines have all the comforts
of home including air-conditioning, breakroom with TV, and bathrooms. You may even be ushered around via jeep in this big
underground basement.
Here rock is being taken via conveyor to the sorter.
The less modern ones resemble something out of an old Western movie. The elevators are alot more rickety, dark, wet and slippery.
Definitely not reccommended for someone with claustrophobia. While diamond mines are considered safe, the signs that warn
of "flood exits" are enough to give one pause. So perhaps after this bit of info on diamond mining you may have
a better sense of why so much fuss is made over something so little. A lot of manpower and machine-power is put into getting
these beautiful and timeless stones out of the ground and on their way to you.
Now seriously....would THIS freak you
out? Imagine it....you're as deep in the Earth as the Eiffel Tower is tall. Hmm....
Before it ever gets to that breathtaking beauty and high status on the hand of your beloved...this is what the raw product
looks like.
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