21 & 23 May 1986: One Half Mile Closer to Hell

May 24, Hillcrest Community, Halfway House, north of Johannesburg

 

Going Way Down

If Hell is located in the center of the earth, I got about as close to it as I’d want to yesterday.  Dennis Knox, the visits officer for DeBeers led me and four other adventurers on an underground tour of one of the four active diamond mines in Kimberley.  We descended 760 meters (about 2500 feet) in an elevator which disconcertingly bounced up and down a few times when we came to a stop at the bottom.  It was an eerie feeling stepping out of the elevator car nearly a half mile from the earth’s surface dressed in my camera vest, a white coat, hard hat with lantern, and steel-toed shoes.  

I’m ready for my long ride down to meet Hades, the god of the underworld.

 

Our group walked at least ¼ mile down a horizontal 12-by-12 foot shaft which was rather dimly lighted and had a train track running down the middle.  As I walked, I periodically felt wind because loudly-humming fans are constantly bringing in fresh air from the surface.  We had to step to the side to let a 12-car mine train pass.  It was loaded with Kimberlite, an intrusive igneous rock which has diamonds within its matrix.  

This main tunnel eventually divided into several side tunnels.  Dennis led us down a 7-by-5 foot tunnel which provided egress to a number of similar tunnels perpendicular to it.  At the end of each of these tunnels was an operator’s control panel which pulled a shovel back and forth through the tunnel bringing loose chunks of Kimberlite to a hole which dropped about 10 feet down to a lower level where it was loaded on to mine cars.  We walked down one of these tunnels when the shovel wasn’t operating.  Whereas, the first large tunnel penetrated granite, all these side tunnels were reinforced with cement because they had been built through the softer, weakly-consolidated Kimberlite.  The tunnels with shovels had numerous small circular openings in their cement walls on either side.  Most of these were blocked by rubber-tire contraptions.  Three black miners were readying bundles of dynamite sticks to place in one of the side tunnels to loosen more Kimberlite.  The weight of the Kimberlite above would push various-sized chunks out of the hole after the charges went off forcing the Kimberlite rubble to a spot where the shovel operator could scrape it out to waiting cars on the lower level. 

We exited the tunnels that had the shovels and walked a few yards down the access tunnel. Several minutes later, several big thuds went off which rattled my ear drums.  I considered momentarily what it would feel like to be buried alive down here.  Not the most pleasant way to die, I suspect.  One of my tour companions commented on the potential savings in burial expenses. 

On the way out of the Kimberlite gallery, I appreciated wearing a hard hat after banging my head on overhead pipes three times.  We headed off through another side tunnel to watch workmen excavating a new, large (roughly 18-by-18 foot) spiral tunnel which will go down several hundred more feet enabling DeBeers to open up new operations.  It was hot (probably 90°F) in this new poorly lighted tunnel which wasn’t as well-ventilated as the area we had just come from.

We walked back out the long horizontal shaft toward the elevator.  At the end of the rail line were crushers where the Kimberlite chunks were being ground into smaller pieces before being hauled up to the surface.  After about an hour in the bowls of South Africa, we returned to the surface by elevator.

Upon our return to the surface, Dennis showed us the winding engine that pulls the Kimberlite up to the surface.  The work is done by two 1900 horsepower D.C. motors which drive a 14-foot diameter wheel. 

Dennis stressed the company’s safety consciousness and low accident rate.  I’d agree that conditions seemed relatively good for the mostly black miners (there were a few white supervisors).  They didn’t seem to be doing much back-breaking labor as most of the heavy work is automated.  Also, dust doesn’t seem to be a problem.  Still, I can’t imagine that spending one’s working life in this bleak environment would be much of a gas.        

The mine manager’s wife told me that her husband, Jack, regrets not being able to spend more time down in the mines now that he has moved up the ranks.  To each his own perversion, I suppose!  She also commented that this work is “gentlemen’s mining” compared to gold, coal, etc.

 

Recovering diamonds from the Kimberlite ore

Two days before the mine tour, I had a tour of the diamond recovery area where the Kimberlite is processed after it is brought up to the surface.  Our guide, Titch Morris, had been with DeBeers for 52 years.  For the past 12 years he has been semi-retired, leading tours a couple days a week.  Morris said the company mines 17,400 tons of Kimberlite per day from which they extract an average of 4000 carats.  The processing uses six million liters of water per day.  They recycle the water but only recover 40% of it; the balance stays in the Kimberlite dumps.  There are huge mountains of this waste rock next to the mine.  

Diamond in Kimberlite, Seaman Mineral Museum, Houghton, Michigan.  Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diamond_in_kimberlite_%28Cretaceous;_Kimberley,_South_Africa%29_1_%2832832594347%29.jpg

 

The recovery process is very automated.  Water is added to the crushed Kimberlite forming a slurry which is run through separators.  Two men run this part of the operation making sure that the specific gravity of the slurry is kept down to 1.75.  Some of the larger diamonds fall out of the slurry at this point and the remaining Kimberlite is crushed to a smaller size.  The slurry is washed over grease tables which are coated with vaseline.  Diamonds stick to the vaseline while the other material is washed away.  In the meantime, larger chunks of Kimberlite go through an x-ray diffraction “doohickey” (my word, not theirs) which separates out the larger diamonds.  About 60% of the diamonds recovered are of gem quality; the remainder are used industrially.  Everything else, even garnets, goes to the dumps.

Through windows, we watched four white guys sorting, weighing, and grading the diamonds.  They had their hands in rubber gloves which go into glass cases (glove boxes) where the diamonds are.  They never actually touch the diamonds with their hands.  Titch said they prefer to work this way so that no one can accuse them of stealing.  Every diamond picked up by x-ray diffraction or original weighing has to be accounted for.  There are three different cross-checks to insure that nothing is stolen.  In addition, security guards watch the sorters and other recovery area workers.  “And who watches the security men?”  I asked.  Titch pointed out closed circuit TV cameras.  Workmen who are suspected of stealing diamonds are searched or required to undergo x-rays before leaving the plant and there are spot checks as well. 

Despite all this elaborate security, however, someone always tries to beat the system.  Jack, the general manager, admitted to me that three security people had recently been fired in connection with diamond pilfering.  There was also a piece in Kimberley’s daily paper, The Diamond Field Advertiser, about a local businessman who had been convicted of illicit diamond buying (IDB).  He was fined R5,000 and had to make restitution for R19,700 worth of diamonds he had sold.  It’s against the law in South Africa to have an uncut diamond in one’s possession. 

The diamond recovery business seems to be tied up by DeBeers although they sell diamonds to licensed cutters.  A law prevents DeBeers from doing the cutting themselves.  The business has the appearance of a monopolistic racket, but seeing the complicated mining and recovery process makes it clear why diamonds are so expensive. 

The day I left Kimberley, Jack was having a meeting with the DeBeers board of directors who had flown into town on a company Lear Jet.  He had to justify why their recovery rate has been down recently.  “The good Lord just didn’t put the diamonds there [where we’re currently working]”, he explained. 

Titch said there are 3000 DeBeers employees in the four Kimberley mines.  600 are white, 800 are coloured (mixed race), and 1600 are black.  Most of the blacks are from Lesotho.  Fathers often reserve jobs for sons, so several generations of blacks often have worked for the company.  Titch raved about the good housing and other benefits for black employees.  “They always say they’re treated badly, but they get a fuck-all bloody good wage!” he asserted.  He added that the miners have schooling available and can rise to any level they want.  If they want to remain a floor-sweeper all their lives, that’s okay too. 

As to how much of this stuff about opportunities for advancement of non-white workers is B.S., it’s was hard for me to tell except that I didn’t meet any black supervisors.  However, the tours were fascinating even though the company obviously does them for P.R. purposes.    

Other Kimberley Sights

The tourist board took me to see several other sights in Kimberley which were quite boring.  The art gallery was dull and the woman leading the tour of the local museum was dreadful.  I did enjoy a short visit to the Duggan-Cronin Bantu Gallery.  Alfred Duggan-Cronin (1874-1954) was a photographer who lived in Kimberley and travelled all over southern Africa chronicling the lives of black tribesmen with his cameras.