Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1912 — SOUTH AFRICA GEMS [ARTICLE]

SOUTH AFRICA GEMS

Greatest Diamonds Are Found in the Kimberley Fields. Sparklers Are Found In a Rock of Bluish Slafc Color Which Disintegrates on Exposure—De Beers Company in Control. London.—As Johannesburg and the Rand mean gold, so Kimberley means diamonds, the world’s greatest known deposit of this precious stone—-a deposit so extensive and so rich that it It were mined to the extent of the capacity to do so and its produce were thrown immediately upon the market, the supply would so far exceed the demand that the price of diamonds would decrease rapidly and steadllyraSTthe diamond would lose much of Its prestige as a precious stone. America is familiar with gold mining on a grand scale, even on the scale of the Rand, and there Is nothing either in the methods or the results of South African gold mining to attach the interest of novelty or the fascination of mystery to the digging of ore and extraction of the precious metal. But with diamonds the case is different, a correspondent writes. We have no sucb mines at borne.

There is a peculiar fascination about the diamond, in some cases even crime Inciting in its intensity. One feels a distinct thrill of excitement in following the diamond mining operations from beginning to end, from blue ground lo the cupful of precious stones which represents a mine’s day’s work. The diamonds at Kimberley are now found In a rock of bluish slate color, familiarly known as “blue ground.” a breccia composite, which decomposes on exposure to the air, sun and rain, and In a few weeks or months crumbles into powder or into a condition in which it is easily pulverized. This diamond bearing rock is a deposit in the oval shaped funnels of volcanic vent holes, which descend almost vertically from earth’s surface toward Its Interior. Each of these volcanic vent holes is a diamond mine, and the diamond bearing conglomerate has been followed downward at some points for 3,000 feet. Most of the world’s diamonds have in the past been found on or near the earth’s surface in soft soil or crumbled rock which readily yields its treasure to crude washing or sifting. The first diamond mining at Kimberley was of thiß sort, but now diamonds are mined here from the rock and deep under-

ground, by processes approximating those employed in gold and silver mining. At Kimberley the diamond mines are nearly all owned by the De Beers company, the consolidation of many; weak and hostile individual interests into a monopoly and a trust, frankly confessed to be such, having been effected by the organization genius of Cecil Rhodes. Everything at Kimberley seems to be owned or controlled by or exists by grace of the De Beers company. The company has 20,000 employes, 2,500 white and 17,500 natives. It has built a model village for its employes. It has evolved special stringent peculiar laws to prevent or punish unlicensed sale or purchase of the rough diamonds. On every side its dominating influence is perceptible.