I saw something somewhere recently that reminded me of a scene from an old James Bond movie (I am guessing it was probably “Diamonds Are Forever”, but I must have seen it over 30 years ago, so I am really not sure) showing a miner swallowing a diamond that he had just unearthed, presumably to “retrieve” it at a later time, probably earning him big bux when he sold it on the black market when he got the chance.
I assume that the temptation would be great, and I also assume that a miner could virtually make the equivalent of his annual salary with just one or two modest stones, even if he had to sell them at a tiny fraction of their actual value.
I guess an X-ray every time they left the mine would show up any secreted diamonds, but wouldn’t a daily X-ray be too much radiation for any company, (no matter how greedy or unscrupulous it may be) to inflict on their employees?
Is there video surveillance on every square inch of an active mine and on every employee in said mine?
How do they stop pilfering of diamonds by the miners who originally unearth the raw stones?
Sort of related, but when I visited the Denver mint the employees could not take any coins out of the building, even if they had brought them in. A real simple way to stop theft.
I’m guessing the diamonds don’t pop out in final, polished form in the mines. Maybe like gold mining, all that happens in the mines is they break up rock to be refined outside. Also, raw diamonds are worth less than polished.
I’m a former gemologist, so I’ve heard tales (but have never been to a diamond mine or worked in one) so take this with a grain of salt.
The truth is, that the miners steal LOTS of the smaller diamonds. Something like 25% of the total output of the mines disappears with the workers. And how do they know?
Well, rumor has it that DeBeers actually buys the stolen diamonds from the miners in pawnshop-like shops that are clustered around where the miners live. They don’t want the stolen roughs (the uncut diamonds look kinda like pebbles) flooding the market, so they just bite the bullet and buy 'em back. The miners swallow them, store them in er, hidden areas on their person, and (again, rumors) even use trained carrier pigeons to get the stolen diamonds out of the mine camps.
Any miners that are CAUGHT stealing are fired immediately and prosecuted, and since diamond mining is a great job (relatively speaking) for the local miners and the families they support, I guess they try not to get too carried away.
DeBeers has a system where they x-ray randomly as workers enter and exit the camps, and since the majority of diamonds (not 100% of them, mind… but most) actually have fluorescent properties so they do show up on an xray.
the best way to prevent theft during mining and processing is to have a mechanized continous process that does not require human intervention. only in the final sorting and grading stage of raw diamonds can human hands actually touch the gems. this process will now be done under strict security.
My reading of what Aaron said was that perhaps the raw diamonds are not very distinguishable or separable from the rock being dug out and thus physically not easy to steal.
All that’s produced in the mines are rocks that have to be taken outside. It’s not viable to swallow/shove down your pants a 20 kg rock that may/may not contain a diamond.
Raw diamonds may be indistinguishable from other gems to an untrained observer (go image search “raw diamond”, they look like quartz or topaz).
Even if you know it IS a diamond, you can’t guess its value if you’re not a professional, and certainly not in a dark, noisy mine, without stopping and staring at it, attracting attention. Are you holding a gemstone, or something destined for industrial abrasive?
Ok so you have a flawless raw diamond that’s not embedded in rock. What are you going to do with it? The price of a VS2, G, 1.25 carat rough diamond is only US$375 per carat. And how likely are you to find a 1 carat diamond? Rough Diamond Prices Guide
It’s a different story once the diamonds are polished. I read an article where the writer visited a place working with diamonds. At the end of the visit, the guard asked her how was her tour. But the guard wasn’t listening to her reply, he was looking to see if she’d hidden any in her mouth.
In South Africa, I believe that the miners have to spend a mandated amount of time (several hours) in a little dorm or rest facility before they can leave. Long enough that they have to relieve themselves in the company toilets at least once. This could cut down on smuggling attempts.
I’m skeptical. For one thing, most people can easily go several hours without taking a dump; to be reasonably sure that the employees are passing the stones the waiting period should be much longer. Second, even if some miners do pass the stones, what’s to stop them from recovering the rocks from the toilets, washing them, and reinserting/reingesting them?
Obviously I am not in a position to argue here, and I don’t want to start an issue (one that I am sure to lose) over something so trivial, and I also want to acknowledge that AaronX 2nd post was VERY informed and insightful, but you have to admit that his 1st post made it seem like he hadn’t read my OP worth a darn…
That said, I shouldn’t have written what I did, as it was not helpful or necessary.
Apology to AaronX, and thanks for the detailed info contained in your follow-up post.
This isn’t the case in the Namibian paleobeach and marine diamond extraction operations
It really doesn’t take a lot of training to tell the real thing. Scratch and wetting tests are easy to perform anywhere. And diamond miners are trained to spot the real thing, so they don’t accidentally feed a very big but slightly flawed stone to the crushers where it will become two less big stones.
And the term of art is “rough” diamond, not raw.
Again, this might be the case in some areas, but in the Namibian operations, around 98% of production is gem quality. That’s because all the other stuff has been winnowed out by alluvial and marine working. A lot of the other diamond mines in the world aren’t the stereotypical deep, dark, noisy mines either. They’re frequently open pit workings.
Do you have any idea how much money that is to a 3rd World person?
I believe that it *was *several hours they had to wait while they had a meal and R&R before being let out, on top of the hours spent on shift. Also, a toilet may be designed like an outhouse with a long drop so that you can’t reach anything. But that’s a WAG. This is working from a poor, distant memory.