DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS

[Music] it's like a Ken one system you you you can't stop you go on and on and on and that's that's the reason they do don't ever stop because it's in your blood to to find that big one to retire of to going to see the world if you're a gambler and you hit the big jackpot that feeling you know a million or 2 million Rand or whatever that's the feeling you have when you find a nice Diamond once you've seen the diamond on the Sorting table it's quite exciting uh but it's got it bad moments too they've got rifles they've got AK-47s 9 mm they got everything here and they can they will kill you like that South Africa for more than a century the area around Kimberly has lured men from all over the world trying their luck in the tough and Dangerous Hunt for diamonds we are on the way to the diggings of a white South African Yan Lumbard has been searching for diamonds all his life just a few days ago he started to dig in this place hoping this one would turn into a jackpot because the diamonds are there somewhere under the surface millions of years ago a gigantic 20 km wide river roared through the prehistoric landscape carrying gravel sand and diamonds today the river is much smaller but somewhere along the run of the Old River the precious stones lay down to rest in deposits of gravel but where that is what Yan Lombard and his son Yanni are now trying to find out it looks good so I think we might make a test later might go down yeah after you've taken out this as you can see the it's got some gravel in here mhm pebbles in the sand yeah and the top sand over there no gravel in it so I think maybe it might be a good idea to go down if there are diamonds here they can be hidden anywhere between the Surface and down to 10 m the diggers are constantly looking out for the layers of gravel that hide the diamonds and soon the excavators reveal a promising Lair deposited here by the prehistoric River this came down with the river as you can see the Pebbles are smooth came down uh you know the water polished it so that's a that's one of the major signs we're looking at you're not going to work a gravel that's got sharp edges you see so you you're looking for nice round Pebbles and the bigger the better the presence of promising gravel makes everybody working on the digging optimistic if they find diamonds there is a nice bonus for everyone the fields belong to a local farmer he too gets a share of what might come out of the ground how much nobody wants to talk about indeed very few people in the diamond business want to talk to strangers at all you can't go on the street and tell him listen yeah Yanni found a diamond or pit find a diamond the next day they read it in a paper they saw it on television and then you're in trouble because they this guys come at night or they can come during the day and they can take everything of you and there's nothing it's not worthwhile you know to get killed for for a couple of carrot diamonds you know but that can happen that's why the guys don't want to talk now the first samples of gravel are being brought to the Sorting plant the tension is increasing in 2 hours from now the first washed gravel will hit the Sorting table giving the first indications whether there are any diamonds at all a rough estimate says the diggers have to sort 100 tons of material to get one carrot of diamonds today very few diamonds are picked up by hand though it can still happen usually what we do is when you take a look at the gravel you want to see some traces like soft yellows or Reds you know we've got certain signs we look for certain Pebbles and uh what you usually do you come to the side you break off a piece and you break it open and um well one of the diggers about 2 years back he broke it open he got a small diamond you see it's it can happen at this stage of the Sorting process for these workers to actually find a diamond is highly unlikely however the diamond business is full of stories of men finding precious stones in the most dramatic ways stories of big fortunes being made in desolate deserts and big fortunes lost again somebody who knows these stories is Trevor Yuri a diamond dealer in Kimberly Trevor Yuri has spent his entire life with diamonds both as a digger and now as a prosperous dealer he has seen men turning into millionaires by hitting that one lucky jackpot there was four young fellows went into the district and they um somebody cleared the ground and they found the gravels and they decided uh we we would fall in there and uh in 4 days they had a big Big Stone it was an 86 carer which they sold for over $500,000 So within 4 days they became rich men he has also witnessed how luck can change in hours an old Diamond Digger finally found the big one he sold it to Trevor Yuri in return for a canvas bag full of cash and went home to celebrate with his young wife a few hours later Trevor Yuri heard the rumor that the old Digger was dead so I phoned the lady and I said Mrs Klein I hear some disturbing news I said Is it true in the meantime in the background there was a big party going on they were having a wake so I said to her but is it true she said yes sir she said when I got home my husband took the money out the canvas bag put it all out on the lounge floor sat back gave a big sigh and I called in the doctor cuz he just looked terrible and the doctor pronounced him dead from a great a big heart attack and then he just lay dead so he said uh I said now you're a a very rich widow she said yes very sad story back at the diggings the search goes on for more than 100 years the South Africans have refined the art of sorting clay sand stones and diamonds it demands great skill and experience to deal with these enormous amounts of material without throwing the diamonds away the first step is to mix the material with water now all the Trel is get gets turned around like in a cyclone what happens is all your heavy stuff goes to the outside and your lighter stuff goes to the inside where it goes through the hole in the middle and it goes out to the waist and the waist just runs down into the hole down there and then on the other side uh we've got a small hole that's about 4 in by 3 in and now after the pans ran for about 2 hours the concentrate gets packed on the sides so you open up up that hole and you tap all the concentrate into buckets there is not much glamour about these muddy buckets but after tons and tons of ground have been washed out this is where the diamonds are that is if there are any diamonds in a very short time from now the Lombard family and their workers will know if this digging is worthwhile or a waste of time and money fortunes have been lost in man's hunt for diamonds of often said I don't know if uh gambling woman or diamond digging which takes your money the quickest I'm not quite sure I've been trying to work it out for many years I don't know which uh which is the quickest diamonds are the hardest Crystal ever invented by nature and very hard to find digging for diamonds today means big machinery and a lot of Manpower the days where one man was trying his luck armed with a pick and shovel are are almost over but a few old diggers in the area still hold on to the dream one of them is cesil Austin he is now teaming up with some of the newcomers to the Diamond District they put up the hard work and the money he delivers the knowhow from a long life of seeking those precious stones few times I've sold for 40,000 30,000 20,000 but that's not a that they're looking for that one for 500,000 fast me can't since the 1870s the search for diamonds has been going on around kimbery when the first diamonds were found there soon after that the diggers came from all over the world with diamond fever in their blood overnight whole new towns were built in the middle of nowhere one of them was Bakerville the people were was coming from all over the world to this place at one time it was over 250 a qu million people in this area then the Diamond Rush came to an end fewer and fewer diamonds were found and the diggers left again today Bakerville is no longer on the map and all there is left are a few scattered ruins and old sorting machines rting away however the long lost city of Bakerville still attracts a few dreamers who hope they might scrape out of the ground what others Left Behind when I moved here I see everybody's making big bucks well maybe I must give it a shot so that's why I tried it B the machine took me about a month in business now they can't afford expensive Machinery they are forced to chase the Lucky Strike with their bare hands meaning long hours of hard work time is of no Essence whatsoever they will work long hard hours just to find the diamond they will work overtime they'll work all sorts of times just because that elusive big one is crept away and they must find it so far the the results have been meager 3 weeks of hard work have brought nothing but maybe the big one is only a pick in the ground away the diamond is a funny thing you can work for 3 weeks with no luck and then all of a sudden you you get it so I think I'll try for another year or so see what's happening hopefully I'll get something you gamble every day and every morning you wake up and you think well today the big one's coming today I must find the big one because it's going to be my day today and it never comes and you say well then today the sun sets you think well hell today's gone by but tomorrow I must get it and so we go on hopefully hopefully it must come it must come and it does sometimes that is what the Lumbard family is now hoping for the mud is washed away and the gravel sorted in different sizes the diamonds being the heaviest material will gravitate to the center of the sives then the Moment of Truth has finally come when the Pebbles arrive at the Sorting table in an old Caravan there's a couple of stones we look for that's a good indication that there is diamonds or not and sometimes you don't find any know any indication it's just Diamond there's no sure way of telling that it's going to be something it's a gamble sometimes they are it sometimes they not you can only look at the gravels and say well the the gravels look good to me we should find diamonds but you can never be certain sometimes these beautiful gravels no diamonds and other time very thin gravels very um uninteresting gravels and there you find a lot of diamonds so far no diamonds have emerged on the Sorting table but the signs are good yeah are you see we call this red luck and that usually when you find it you got a bit of luck so I don't know nothing in this one as well nothing came out of the first gravel from this new digging but people are still optimistic the family decides to dig deeper in search for layers of diamond bearing gravel and the search for precious stones goes on under very hot and humid conditions temperatures from from 32 to about 42 45° C so as you can see my lips were burnt and I didn't have a very pleasant time here in the summer but sometimes it's worth it other days just tough luck today is tough luck not a single Diamond lights up the Sorting table things are not looking too good maybe this digging is a total waste but they decide to continue also because leaving a digging is always difficult you never know if you're going to stop here today and uh 5 m away you're going to the big Diamond's lying the next Digger comes and he continues with that claim and he finds the big diamond and you've missed it so that that's what happens sometimes the sun is beating down around midday and the dry heat is getting almost unbearing terrible everybody is looking for a bit of Shadow while the last material is being sorted at the digging Yan Lumbard is on his way to a nearby town trying to do a bit of business on the side some years ago Yan Lumbard began to buy and sell diamonds once a week there is a diamond Market where all the diggers in the area try to sell their findings how's the market ah you know I think it's a bit uh off this week I don't know I don't know what's wrong but um uh but that's always a travel if I came here with diamonds You could argue to tell me yes yes what what what can you do you know it's uh how did it go this week uh not so bad but also not so good this message is getting more common in the area more and more ground has been worked out leaving fewer and fewer diamonds to be found it's not like you can you go and plant some miles and next year you plant the same land and you'll get a a big crop make a lot of money it's not like that if it's finished he finished you know then you must go and look for somewhere somewhere else can we have a look at your parcel this week okay here H look all right how much a diamond is worth depends on what can be cut out of it and Yan Lombard is worried that a green colored diamond is not really green all the way through can I call my my polisher to just have a look at it sure F what do you think of this will it be um will it stay green or will you have a look at it please it's going to turn yellow is it then my offer is um um 38,000 700 nothing more no I try no this you know there the only good stone is this one and this little one there other Smalls you know we can use this for the IND Market but uh but okay if you want to to try somebody else it's all right thank you no deal this time The Diamond Cutter works next door diamonds are so hard that only another diamond or diamond dust can cut this valuable crystal big money is at stake one wrong move and a stone worth thousands of dollars is destroyed great amounts are passing through these hands and sadly enough this is also known by the wrong people there's quite a few murders that have that happened here and robberies and so you have to be we have to be prepared 20 30 years ago you never heard of robberies today it's it's an in thing they they rob each other every every week we get of a robbery of somebody if it's not a diamond buyer it's a diamond digger it's somebody in the diamond business and they hijack them they do all sort of things so there's a tremendous fear in the diamond business it is late afternoon a long and hard day work at the digging gave absolutely nothing this is an unpleasant feeling but the coming darkness of the night gives way to even more unpleasant experiences at night the diggings often get unwelcome visitors the pan scrapers they want to steal the diamond bearing gravel left in the machines the diggers have to be prepared to defend their property it's like you go into a into a war you never know if that guy will turn around and shoot you if you do a thing you must do it quickly and you must catch him very quickly to protect his digging Yan Lombard has now employed a night guard a big Zulu that follows one very basic instruction shoot to kill you can't go at night to your your place because I've got a a a guard there and even if it's me I must in you know I I put normally a light on my vehicle a red or a green light and you know it's me and then I can come and visit him but otherwise you can't go there he's just he should and he will kill you if you if you go there every night the wives of the diggers wait anxiously for their husbands and Sons to return from the digging G I'm afraid of them being shot uh because because if you see something you can prevent it but they can't see in the dark and I mean at night time they come back with the diamonds this is the leg of yan Lombard's partner franois f v he experienced the nightmare they wait him when he's when he arrived from the digging Works in his house and they just thought when he come into to his one room they just open fire and when I came at my house I when I opened the door I saw uh two blacks waiting for me and when I opened the door they immediately start to shoot and then I try to escape but they still keep on shooting they hit him seven times and today he's a real he's he's 30 years old but he he can't he can't actually use his arms anymore he lost a kidney piece of his lever no he was his he's back is is really badly injured today the there's more gangsters around and they're trying to rob everybody and everybody's very scared everybody's petrified that they're going to be robbed and as I say everybody's armed today it's either with a cell phone otherwise radio otherwise handgun shotguns rifles anything wherever you go you see the the people are armed it's not a very pleasant situation and it goes on and on and on so uh we got to be careful despite the dangers the hunt for the precious stones goes on early the next morning maybe for the last time the big machines try to find the small and Elusive gems in the enormous amounts of ground 2 hours later the intense search goes on at the Sorting table is this digging a loser or a winner you're lucky look at that one there it is not a big one but it is there sometimes you even get three or four in one pan it can happen now they are coming one after the other the diggers have hit a pocket of diamonds already around midday they have found a nice collection not a fortune but enough to keep the digging running and optimism High we get so excited about it and of course the Digger gives a big yell and everybody around says hey what have you got and they all come running from their diggings to have a look at it and then the rumor spreads around that you've it it's a 15 Karat and everybody says a 25 Karat and then the rumor gets round to 35 karat then the rumors get bigger and bigger and better and then every buyer phones him and says what do you got can't I see it will you show me the diamond can I buy it and then everybody gets excited for more than a 100 years the Diamond Diggers have hunted all over South Africa trying desperate to hit that treasure in the area around Kimberly much of the ground has now been worked out so there really is not much future around here maybe we must uh move to some something some somewhere else are we looking at prospects in North Africa there is a lot of guys already be there and but it's it's very risky there too you know of the sickness and malaria and and the the the safety I believe there's a lot of diamonds there too but there's no roads there's nothing you must go there and you must make your own roads and fly in dieseline and it's cost you a lot of money to do it but I think it can be withth wide the diggers of South Africa are always prospecting for new places that look promising maybe under the next Rock in the next layer of gravel awaits that big one that every everybody is searching for I think Diamond Diggers don't really stop working I think the day you put them in the box when he stops I think when you put him in his coffin and loader him down he that's the last day he goes back to the ground he's he's always been scratching the Earth he never stops they they never seem to retire I know old diggers and they go on and on and on there's no stopping them it's [Applause] exciting he

Channel: COPENHAGEN FILM

Views: 17,303

Keywords: Diamond, digging for diamonds, kimberley, south africa

Id: pAVwWfLximg

Length: 24min 45sec (1485 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024