Diamonds

Mining for diamonds, the easiest way is to dig a pit in the ground until you hit ground water, usually 70 feet. Then you have workers pan through the soil that was taken out of the ground. If you look at the picture you can see the circular pan device that is used. You swirl the dirt around in that and the mud and such will come out while you do it, the diamonds will stay toward the bottom since they are heavier. Then you look through and pick out the diamonds.

There are different ways to get diamonds in Sierra Leone since there are different factions that control the diamond mines. The RUF will sometimes let people pan for diamonds for 4 days and pan for themselves 2 days. Or, what is more common is the two pile system. You are given two piles, one for the RUF one for you. Whatever you pan out of the RUF pile goes to them and whatever you pan for yourself you get to keep. Somehow more always comes out of the RUF piles though.

Quick history before the next portion, the RUF was a group who was trying to over through the government, for a while they were successful in controlling large parts of the country. The quick of it is, they controlled the diamond mines which could buy better weapons that the government had, therefore, they were a powerful fighting force known for brutality, but that is a different blog.

You might wonder why people would work for the RUF since they are also known for mutilation, rape , kidnapping...the list goes on. Well, if you work for the government you get a wage and if you do find a diamond that is worth selling you might receive a small reward. However, the reward is more like $2 though more than what they normally are paid this is not life changing money. Something else I learned, or more accurately was made aware of was the quality of diamonds. Most diamonds found are not the ones that go into rings and bling, they are industrial grade, used in cutters, or that machine at the dentist office that files down your teeth. These diamonds sell at very cheap prices, $80 a carat in the 2001 book I looked in. Workers are not getting rewarded on industrial diamonds, though it is 80% of the industry.

As for gem diamonds, they start out quite big, but after cutting it down, it can lose half its' size! Pictured below is the largest diamond taken from Sierra Leone (that has been recorded). It is called the Star of Sierra Leone, and it is huge... fairly sure I read that when it was found it was close to the size of a brick.