DIAMONDS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 January 1929, Page 7

DIAMONDS

AFRICA’S WONDERFUL FIELD. ENORMOUS FINDS. CAPETOWN. Nov. 1.3. The mystery diamond field of Niinmqunbind is a mystery no longer. Its untold wealth is the envy of the world, and American and Ihitish financiers are trying vainly to persuade the South African Government' to allow them to exploit its riches. Since some of the secrets of this mystery diamond field have appeared in the newspapers special precautions have been taken to keep the workers away from the men who are eager to deal in illicit diamonds. So many precious stones have been smuggled out of this area that nothing short »•" the strictest control by police and soldiers can prevent the diamond markets of London and New York from being thrown into confusion. £0,000,000 FOR £IO,OOO. This week the South African news papers announce that the Government have recently recovered £0,000,000 worth of diamonds at a cost to the Stale of approximately £'lo,ooo. , An area of 25 square miles, through which runs a ravine, has round it a barbed wire and closely meshed fence 7ft in height. An iit Meat* area is similarly enclosed, and here it is that 32 specially selected men are employed in recovering untold wealth from soil hitherto regarded as barren and useless.

According to estimates made by Government experts tliere is sufficient work for the next 15 years. 143 IN ONE HEAP.

Tlie 32 white men who work in the sand have a lonely, and secluded existence. There is one supervisor to every two men. The men are set to work to remove the surface sand until they reach the boulders of the original ravine bed, where hundreds of diamonds are found.

“On one occasion,” said a digger who luid worked on the fields, “we lifted a boulder from its position and found no fewer that 148 single stones together in a heap.”

Alter the surface sand had been removed two men, under control of a supervisor, get down on .their knees and begin digging into the gravel with specially pointed hammers. Hie diggers hand the diamonds immediately to the supervisor, who collects them in a small tin. This he passes every halfhour or so to the chief supervisor.

The gravel loosened by this picking method is carted in wheelbarrows to what is liown as the bebo. a wire sieve closely meshed. Two men work the belie and a supervisor watches them and takes charge of the stones left in the bobe. Tlie gravel which passes through the bebe falls into a wheelharrow and is then taken to the sorting table. WORKERS CONFINED TO CAMP. Hero two more Europeans under a supervisor scrape the gravel as it passes along a conveyor holt, and what diamonds remain arc picked out by the supervisor. The gravel left undergoes a final washing process. The men en gaged in this work are not allowed to put their hands in their pockets.

.Moreover, hand-pickers must remove their boots before they go off for luncheon or off duty for the day. Hu* chances of smuggling diamonds are small indeed, unless there is a <■<' spiraey between the men and a supei visor. Rut the supervisors are all men of unimpeachable integrity. Even if' the men smuggled diamonds while at work they would ha<te tli greatest difficulty in getting rid oi them. They do not leave the State diggings. The barbed wire enclosure becomes their permanent home for six months until their contract has been fulfilled.

They are guarded more closely than convicts. No man is allowed to leave tlmt liarlied-wire enclosure except, with the. special permission of the commit l.ee of management once a month. A '•upervisor is allowed out with a special permit. SMUGGLING DESPITE- ALL.

It’ suspicion attaches to any man he is promptly searolied'.. A force, of ooliccnien patrol the harlicd wire ten'- ;. R night and day, and the camp en-los-is kept under ohservation at night hy means of a powerful searchlight. And yet. despite all these precautions, illicit stones are finding their way overseas. lho methods of th p diamond thief are subtle and varied. It is the belief of some people that |hose illicit diamonds are not smuggled from the Stale diggings, hut come from other parts of Nama<|Ualand, some having been bought from natives who have their own secret areas. It is rumoured tlmt n tfood deni <> sureptitious digging is going on aloim the hanks «f the Orange river at such nhwes as Modder Drift and Ou/en'mo.