Have you ever wondered where your pearl jewelry came from? Or why it is a precious stone with high appraisal value? To date, only a few diamond mining sites are available. The biggest producer of diamonds is Russia, contributing $414 million in its gross capital income, being able to export 6.65 million carats during the first three months of 2008. Another top producer of diamonds is Cape Colony in Southern Africa where the Kimberley Mine is located. Huge deposits of diamonds are found in these areas of extreme temperature. Just how are the diamonds formed? Here are some interesting facts: coal and diamonds are both made up of carbon. Coal is abundant in the face of the earth and it is simple to produce, while the diamond takes billions of years under a certain temperature and pressure in order for it to be formed. Pressure should be between 45 to 60 kilobars and the temperature should range from 900 to 1,300 degrees Celsius. Such conditions exist only in the earth’s lithospheric mantle found on the continental plate.
If you own a piece of diamond hoop earrings, you can be excited about the fact that it could be over a billion years old! Do you have any idea how diamonds are mined besides the common, general notion that they are dug from the ground? It probably traveled across the continents of the Earth before it gets to your hands. There are two kinds of mining techniques for the primary and secondary deposits. Primary deposits need an underground pit in which the ore is trampled in order to locate the diamonds. Secondary deposits or alluvial deposits are found in the shores, coastlines, riverbeds and ocean floors which resulted from the erosion of its source. The biggest diamond ever found is the Cullinan with 3,106 carats discovered in South Africa. However, despite its luster and glitter, there’s some harsh reality behind it. In Sierra Leone, child labor is used to dig and search for diamonds underground. They need a child because the child’s size enables him or her to go through narrow passages underground.
The rights, welfare and well-being of the child are neglected. They are exposed to unsafe working conditions such as the possibility of contracting certain diseases such as HIV and AIDS, being buried by collapsing walls and being drowned underground. Some workers are said to be earning low or no wages at all under such substandard conditions. Another harsh reality is that private miners are also onto the diamond rush. To date, there are over a million individuals digging up the grounds in Africa in search for these precious stones. These activities resulted in barren and messed-up lands that were once suitable for agricultural farming. Hence, diamonds coming from these areas have been branded “blood diamonds” because of the cruel and careless process in obtaining them. And the worst thing is that these diamonds are used to fund wars and atrocities. In 2003, the Kimberley Process Certification System was created to ensure that heart shaped necklace being sold in the global market are not blood diamonds in order to lessen its ugly effects.