The flagship mine for De Beers is the Venetia, located in South Africa. De Beers began searching for diamonds in this area as early as 1969, but the mine was not in full operation until 1993. The Venetia mine is the largest in South Africa and accounts for over 40% of all diamonds mined there.
The Venetia mine is an open-pit mine but there is a possibility that the mine could expand underground as well. Mine officials expect the surface mining to be able to continue for around twenty more years.
In June, De Beers installed a new diamond crusher at the mine which cost close to $32 million dollars. All of the diamond recovery work is done nearby. First, the kimberlite is exposed and the ore is blasted and then loaded into trucks. Once at the plant, it is crushed and sorted by size. X-ray fluorescence is used to find the diamonds and workers actually do the final sorting by hand. The diamonds are then sent off to the Central Selling Organisation which classifies the diamonds into over five thousand categories.
De Beers has been especially mindful to the environmental concerns of the Venetia mine area. No toxic chemicals are used in the processing of the ore and no chemical pollutants are released. All of the pipelines used are buried and they use a dust control system. They also try to minimize the noise coming from the area. They also set up a wildlife preserve and moved many animals from the mining area to the preserve
No comments:
Post a Comment