How are Diamonds Mined?

One of the main questions you’ll have when choosing a diamond is whether to opt for natural or lab grown. Lab grown diamonds are a brilliant option to maximise your budget. In contrast, natural diamonds are a better choice if you want a diamond that will hold its value and be passed down from generation to generation. If you’re deciding on a natural diamond, you’ll want to make sure it’s sourced ethically. In this guide, we’ll explain how diamonds are mined and processed.

How were diamonds mined in the past?

In the past, diamond mining was a dangerous task that used simple methods and hard, exploitative labour. Thankfully, natural diamonds are mined and manufactured in a much safer and more ethical way today.

Diamond panning

Until the 1800s, diamonds were found naturally in riverbeds and floodplains and were collected in a similar way to gold during the American Gold Rush. Miners would use sieves and pans to scoop sand and gravel from the riverbed and filter out unwanted silt and stones from valuable diamonds.

Open-pit mining for diamonds

Just like the Gold Rush, the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in the late 19th century led to a boom in interest. People flocked to areas like Kimberley in South Africa, where they dug holes by hand using pickaxes and shovels. There was a complete lack of safety standards, making it a very dangerous job. Open pits were dug straight down with very steep sides, and wall collapses and landslides happened quickly, often with catastrophic results.

Underground mining for diamonds

When the surface deposits of diamonds became exhausted in the late 1800s, miners were forced to excavate deeper and deeper into the ground. With no safety standards and access to unpredictable, primitive explosives, cave-ins were common. Exposure to toxic gases was another risk, which could poison miners while they worked.

Conflict diamonds

In the 1990s, civil wars in countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo led to the unethical trading of diamonds to fund conflict. Diamonds mined in these war zones were sold by rebel groups and smuggled across borders with little policing until the early 2000s, when international controls were introduced to ensure rough diamonds entering the market were conflict-free.

How are diamonds mined today?

In today’s climate, diamond companies have made significant changes to their mining processes to address the ethical issues and safety risks associated with the industry. Ethically mined diamonds are issued with a Kimberley Process Certificate.

What is the Kimberly Process?

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is an international certification system aimed at stopping conflict diamonds from entering the global diamond market. It applies to rough, pre-cut diamonds.

Launched in 2003, the initiative includes over 80 countries, representing almost all of the global diamond trade. In order to qualify for a certificate, diamonds must meet the following criteria:

• The company must be registered with the national diamond authority

• They must comply with mining, labour and export laws

• They must operate within a KPCS member country

• The diamonds must be tracked from the mine to the export

• Stringent record-keeping must detail production, sales and shipments

• Diamonds must be stored securely in tamper-proof containers

Before every export of rough diamonds, the company needs to apply for a certificate, as each certificate is valid for one shipment only. The exporter must declare the carat size of the diamonds, their value, origin and destination country.

While the Kimberley Process only applies to rough diamonds, if you decide to purchase a natural diamond, you can ask for documentation confirming that the diamonds are Kimberley Process compliant.

Open-pit and underground mining today

While open-pit mining is still a common method of acquiring diamonds, its process has changed significantly over the last 100 years. Modern diamond mining uses heavy machinery such as drills and haul trucks to dig and move rocks, with automated processing removing much of the danger associated with diamond mining. This is paired with strict safety standards and monitoring for any ground movement.

Underground mining has also become much safer, with complex ventilation systems, tunnels reinforced by engineering, and emergency exits available should a problem arise.

Marine diamond mining

A newer way of mining natural diamonds has been established off the coast of Namibia and the south-west coast of Africa, which relies on state-of-the-art technology. This type of marine mining uses specialist equipment to collect gravel from the seabed and filter diamonds from it.

Areas rich in diamond deposits are identified using sonar and seabed scanning technology. These ships then deploy underwater suction devices to gently vacuum the gravel from the ocean floor. X-rays and density separation processing techniques are then used to filter the diamonds so that the waste material can be returned to the ocean floor. Density separation involves shaking the gravel to bring the larger, denser stones to the bottom and the lighter waste materials to the top. As diamonds are much denser than sand and limestone, they separate naturally, reducing the amount of material that needs processing.

This new process of mining diamonds is highly controlled, with strong anti-theft measures in place as well as government regulations to ensure that the revenue supports national development programmes. The marine mining process has environmental limits and can impact marine life if poorly managed; therefore, this method of mining is continuously monitored and only allowed in a limited area.

Designing your own ring with a natural diamond

At Diamond Heaven, it couldn’t be easier to create your own piece of heirloom jewellery with our easy to use online ring builder. Use our filters to select the shape, size, colour, clarity, cut, certification and budget. Then decide the perfect setting, and then view your ring. It’s that simple. If you need more help and guidance we have a number of showrooms across the UK, where our staff are on hand to help advise you every step of the way. Book an appointment today!