Diamond Mines
Have you ever stopped and thought how those beautiful diamonds make it to your rings, necklaces and other pieces of jewelry? Well, they tend to come from diamond mines. Are you interested in learning more about the different types of mining and how it is done? This could be very interesting if you are a collector. Read on because it is good to know that there are ways of getting diamonds that do not involve blood diamonds. It also makes these beautiful gems seem more real, and have much better value when you realize where it came from. Let’s read on and learn some more about the mining of diamonds.
Marine Retrieving
This is one of the more unknown methods, and there are fewer places where this type of mining takes place. One place where this happens is in Namibia along the coastline. Marine vessels and crawlers are used in order to retrieve these gems along the seafloor. Over half of the Namibian diamonds come from this form of mining. It also allows for people to take advantage of the gems that are otherwise tougher to get to. Humans really cannot get down this far, which is why this type of mining needs some top level help.
Open Pit Mining
This is by far the most common way to mine for diamonds. This is when diamonds are extracted from the earth by removing them from an open pit. The initial surface will generally need to be mined out, and this could take some time depending on how far the diamonds are within the surface. Even after the pit is created there will be a lot of rocks that need to be crushed in order to get to the diamonds that might be held inside of them. The most open pit mining usually happens in Canada and South Africa. They are famous for it.
Alluvial Retrieval
This type of mining is done in riverbeds. The use of metal pans, and other equipment will come into play on this type. Yes, this does sound like something done in the 1840s during the Gold Rush, but it still works today. The more diamonds that are detected, then the more sophisticated the equipment usage will be. This is most often done in Brazil, and they recover quite a number of diamonds. You would be surprised to see how many diamonds still lie undetected within riverbeds and the rocks. It is still a great method in use!
