Diamond

This is a picture of the Cullinan Diamond, I'm sure the spelling is incorrect, and the various diamonds cut from it. The large diamond in the coronation crown was presented to King George V by the South African people via De Beers in 1905. In the day the value was $9,000,000. We took a trip around the diamond mine at Cullinan which started as an open cast mine and is now an underground mine. The hole size of the original mine is 1km x .5km and is still moving and the sides will continue to slide until the angle of the sides has reached 40degrees. The security is so tight as one would expect but the cost of running the mine is $3,000,000 a day and for every 15 tons of brown kimberlite excavated there is a chance of 600grs of diamonds on a good day. It takes up to 4 years for a diamond to be cut and there are only a handful of skilled cutters. Now we know why they are so expensive.

Best bit was the machinery from the wheel house to lower and raise the cable was made by Vickers Corporation in Manchester and Sheffield and installed in 1955.