Once a prospector finds a good deposit, diamond miners must move an incredible amount of ore. It's a lonely quest-only about 30 of the world's 6,000 known kimberlites have become major diamond mines. These eruptions, the last of which occurred tens of millions of year ago, leave behind plugs of solidified rock called kimberlites or "diamond pipes." Prospectors look for minerals associated with kimberlites in their search for diamonds. Diamonds are among the world's oldest minerals, some dated at 3.3 billion years, and formed deep within Earth's interior.Įxtraordinary volcanic eruptions from depths of up to 500 miles carry diamonds to the surface as they erupt like geysers. Jewelry accounts for 90 percent of all diamond value, though diamonds make excellent tips for drill bits and saw blades. ![]() People have mined about 1 million pounds of diamonds since mining began, compared to more than 260 million pounds of gold.Ī diamond is the world's hardest mineral-only another diamond can scratch a diamond. Krajick filled me in on diamonds, and why people chase them with such vigor, when I met him at a recent science conference in San Francisco.ĭiamonds are a transparent form of nearly pure carbon that is much rarer than gold. There, a prospector named Chuck Fipke in 1990 found evidence of diamonds, sparking one of the greatest mining rushes in history. Kevin Krajick tells the story of this modern stampede in his new book, "Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic." Krajick is a writer based in New York City who spent eight years writing his book, including many trips to one of the most remote regions of North America, the treeless northern region of Northwest Territories known as the Barren Lands. The great diamond rush of the north began in the early 1990s. The gems within that can are collectively worth $1.4 million. In the Northwest Territories, companies are extracting the equivalent of a coffee can full of diamonds each day. ![]() In Canada, a stampede for diamonds is now making one of its loneliest regions a bit noisier, and a whole lot wealthier. Fairbanks, for example, exists because Felix Pedro found a few nuggets of gold north of here about 100 years ago. Gold rushes have given birth to towns all over Alaska.
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