The mines department said on Monday it was sending a team comprising of geological and mining experts to the site to collect samples and conduct an analysis. The provincial government has since requested all those involved to leave the site to allow authorities to conduct a proper inspection, amid fears the people digging at the site could potentially be spreading the coronavirus. Some people have started selling the stones, with the starting price ranging from 100 rand ($7.29) to 300 rand. The coronavirus pandemic has made it worse. South Africa’s economy has long suffered from extremely high levels of unemployment, trapping millions in poverty and contributing to stark inequalities that persist nearly three decades after the end of apartheid in 1994. More than 1,000 fortune seekers on Monday flocked to the village of KwaHlathi in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province in search of what they believed to be diamonds. The lack of an analysis of the stones has not deterred the fortune seekers as long lines of parked cars on both sides of the gravel road could be seen just a few metres from the open field, where the young, old, female and male dug through the soil with picks, shovels and forks to find riches. The mines department said on Monday it was sending a team comprising of geological and mining experts to the site to collect samples and conduct an analysis.Ī formal technical report will be issued in due course, the department said. Unemployed Skhumbuzo Mbhele concurred, adding: “I hadn’t seen or touched a diamond in my life. A woman uses a pickaxe to dig as fortune seekers flock to the village. When I returned home with them, (the family was) really overjoyed,” said the 27-year old father of two. “This means our lives will change because no one had a proper job, I do odd jobs. The discovery was a life changer, said one digger Mendo Sabelo as he held a handful of tiny stones. The people travelled from across South Africa to join villagers who have been digging since Saturday, after a herd man who dug up the first stone on an open field, which some believe to be quartz crystals, put out the word. KWAHLATHI, South Africa – More than 1,000 fortune seekers on Monday flocked to the village of KwaHlathi in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province in search of what they believed to be diamonds after a discovery of unidentified stones in the area. Oscar Pistorius denied early release from prison in 2013 murder of girlfriend Killer and rapist who faked prison death caught with celebrity doctor girlfriend year after escape Putin could face arrest in South Africa if he attends economic summit The post Crystals That Sparked South African ‘Diamond Rush’ Are Identified as Quartz appeared first on Diamond Designs | Orange, CT Jewelry Store.South Africans call for UK to return diamonds set in crown jewels Stahl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Meanwhile, Pillay said that the search area posed a threat to grazing cattle because it was pocked with numerous holes, some as deep as one meter.Ĭredit: Image by Michael J. When rumors of a diamond find hit social media, thousands of jobless South Africans rushed to a sleepy village. While most of the amateur miners packed up their belongings and headed home, about 500 stayed on the site, convinced that the stones had real value and that the government officials may not have been telling the truth. A Diamond Rush in South Africa, Born of Desperation and Distrust. For a movie about the South African diamond rush, British film crews record footage of mounted police recruits serving as extras in a cavalcade, the cast. The quartz crystals mined at the site in Ladysmith carried little or no value. Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral on planet Earth, just behind feldspar. “The tests conducted conclusively revealed that the stones discovered in the area are not diamonds as some had hoped,” said Ravi Pillay, a provincial executive council member for economic development and tourism. Sadly, those dreams were dashed when a local official announced on Sunday that the rare “diamonds” of Ladysmith were merely quartz crystals. In fact, the largest diamond ever discovered - the 3,106-carat Cullinan - was unearthed in 1905 about 400km northwest of Ladysmith, near Pretoria.Īrmed with picks and shovels, people from across the country rushed to the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, where a 50-hectare (123-acre) search area became a field of dreams. The country currently hosts seven major diamond mines and generates more than 7 million carats per year. The resulting “diamond rush” was supported by the fact that South Africa has been a world leader in diamond production for the past 150 years. This was the hard lesson learned by 3,000 fortune seekers who descended on Ladysmith, South Africa, early last week after a cattle herder stumbled upon a large clear crystal that appeared to be a diamond. In the world of fine gemstones, looks can sometimes be deceiving.
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