DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BEST FRIEND

INTRODUCTION TO DIAMONDS

The "Big Hole" Kimberley is probably the most famous Diamond mine on the planet. The Kimberley "Big Hole" is so aptly named because it is the largest man made hole in the "hole" wide  world. Anglo American now owns 85% of De Beers DTC who owned the Kimberley Diamond Mine amongst so many other Diamond mines in South Africa and dominated the Diamond business globally until their monopoly officially ended in 2001. De Beers DTC had been buying up all global production of rough uncut diamonds in order to influence Diamond prices. 

Huge multi carat rough uncut diamonds in various colours and crystal types.

However, numerous lawsuits were filed in the Law Courts of America, alleging that De Beers willfully and unlawfully bought-up Diamond stockpiles and monopolized the world's  Diamond supplies, conspired to  raise, control and fix Diamond prices, and misrepresented the Diamond trade with false and misleading advertising.  Diamond prices today are still based on the four C's, viz: Carat, Clarity, Colour and Cut but prices are also heavily influenced by gemologist certification. There are several gemological societies / associations in the world, each having their own standards often incompatible with one another. Among them are EGI (European Gemological Laboratory International), GIA (Gemological Institute of America), IGI (International Gemological Institute), AIG (American International Gemologists), AIGS (Asian Institute of Geological Science), AGS (American Gem Society), GII (Gemological Istuitute of India) to mention but a few.

But to come back to the mine, the size of the Kimberley hole cannot be imagined, it has to be seen to believe how big it really is. Underground mining ceased in 2005 after a 134 years of constant mining. The visible  blue/green water inside the big hole is highly toxic and corrosive and several people who committed suicide by jumping into the acidic water were later found  totally unrecognisable since the acidic water consumed their skin especially their features.

Buildings on the periphery dwarfed by the size of the big hole Kimberley.

Diamonds are in abundance but with modern day mining methods, it only seems financially viable to mine them  if a yield 21 carats of diamonds  per 100 000 tons of rock crushed and sorted can be made. This process calls for huge earth moving machinery and manpower which comes  at a huge expense. Each diamond unearthed was pushed up through the  earths crust  from at least a 150kms,  to end up in blue rock kimberlite pipes and is more than a billion years old. Diamonds are also the hardest known gem and  measure 10 on the Mohs scale. Gem quality polished Diamonds also have the most amazing luster and brilliance. It is these unique properties of Diamonds that makes them special, sought after and very, very expensive. For example a 54 facet 10 carat solatair round brilliant cut (RBC) diamond colour D, with VSS clarity can fetch a price of up to and even exceeding  $450 000 US subject to other factors. Hence most wedding / engagement rings normally come in the .05 caret - 1.0 caret range or perhaps a bit more.  A 2.0 ct solitaire  diamond ring would cost way more than the average person would be willing to spend unless it is bought as an investment.

The Kimberley Big Hole - The largest man-made hole in the whole wide world.

Three other open mines in Kimberley are still in production and the tailings of the big hole mine is still being reprocessed to this very day collectively producing some 1.8 million carats at its peak.

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