Or maybe not so much. I didn’t see a one!
A few weeks back was a Peace Corps field trip to Jwaneng mine, the richest diamond mine in the world by value.
Three years ago, when I had a heavily vested interest in and was intensely researching diamonds, I read a book called something like “Diamond: the Anatomy of an Obsession”, which was a really interesting read and one I will be perusing again just as soon as I can get my hands on it. Back then, in a different life, this would have been the trip of a lifetime for me, to see the place and be near so many of my favorite sparklers. I was surprised by my actual reaction.
The day began altogether too early at 7 am, as we waited out by the road in front of our language teacher’s house. Half an hour later than we were supposed to, we were picked up (again a half an hour to wait is exceptionally little in Botswana) and taken on a two hour bus ride to Jwaneng. The ride was pretty, through the hillier area near Tamaha (although the last bit was a bit rough, over ruts so bad I questioned the integrity of the shocks on the bus- we were being tossed around violently like large sacks of potatoes bouncing like popcorn.) We arrived at the mine, and they herded all 56 of us and our various handlers off the bus and onto another Debswana bus to go through the first layer of the security. Debswana is a corporate/government partnership between the government of Botswana and the diamond cartel DeBeers. We rode this bus about 10 feet and got off to be ushered into a building where we were given a short presentation, in which we are informed that 94% of the workers are Batswana and 21% are women- a figure busted out “To demonstrate” the presenter said, “that we are taking care of them” . (Thank Goodness!) There is also emphasis on the Debswana Company’s social efforts- a cheetah and rhino preserve on the property, a medical clinic and various schools, prior to which people apparently learned under trees. We are outfitted with hard hats and fluorescent vests, and given close toed shoes (so happy I wore my sketchers!!), and told to leave our cell phones behind (we were allowed to bring cameras, but instructed not to take “moving pictures”). Back onto the bus for another 100 feet, (how many meters is that? I should really start thinking this way, as I live in this country that uses it. The metric system is real and it is not going away!!!) And through another layer of security. They tell us not to bother looking on the ground for diamonds as they have determined the most diamond rich areas, and they are not taking us over any of them. I look anyway, there aren’t supposed to be diamonds on the ground in mall parking lots either, but I have managed to find them there. Unfortunately there are no free samples (found by me or given by the company) on this trip.
So we get on and off the bus a few more times (I should add that these are not American buses, they are African buses, and like the people in on this continent, they are much smaller than you’d anticipate. We brush up against every person we pass, every time we walk through the aisle. This makes for not only increased static cling, but irritation in the heat as well!) and finally enter the mine. Jwaneng is an “open pit” mine, which means that layers and layers of Earth are blasted away and removed with the valuable Kimberlite material trucked to a “crusher” which separates the diamonds from the “waste.” An overwhelming majority of this material is “waste rock”, even though there may be copper and other valuable minerals within the refuse, it is still discarded. As the tour guide pointed out, “they are mining diamonds”.
Notwithstanding the large amount of dust in the air, I was struck by the beauty of the different layers and colors of Earth contrasted against the sky. I was visually reminded of the coffee plants growing throughout the valleys and mountains in Costa Rica. The ledges here in the mine are called “benches” and they are carved into the Earth to prevent landslides, whereas in Costa Rica (and I’m also reminded of D.G’s photo presentation of his trip to Machu Pichu) they are created to facilitate irrigation and provide a more accessible growing scheme. I’m saddened by the study in contrasts, to think of the lush green growth and life in those mountains in comparison with the scared earth of the mine.
Despite this, the mine was visually stunning in its own ways, as was the technology quietly humming around us. The tour guide said that as they get deeper into the Earth, they need bigger equipment to get the diamonds out. Huge trucks, with tires taller than me lumber around, the only elephants I’ve seen thus far are slowly violating the Earth. The company has of course GPSed the entire outfit, timing how long every action should take in this mine. Seismographs and explosives are carefully placed, and satellites monitor this carefully and systematic constant evacuation of rock.
We rode the bus further in, disembarking again to take pictures and not much else (no sudden movements). We get back on the bus and go through the tedious process of leaving the mines, everyone going through a door one at a time (I was not one of the lucky ones who got to go through the “frisking” security).
I had mixed feelings about visiting the mines, and diamonds in general. This resource discovery put Botswana on the world’s map, and besides the country’s vast natural beauty and alternating first and second place in the world’s prevalence for HIV and AIDS rates, is what it is known for. The revenue from diamonds has been well managed, and has contributed to the peace and general political stability that Botswana enjoys, so unlike our neighbors Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Angola. The economy is based in it, and the company gives back to the community. Many of the absolutely necessary ARV’s that the government provides free of charge to all it’s citizens are funded at least in part by the revenue from this industry. These are not blood diamonds, not by a long shot.
At the same time, the diamonds are a finite resource. Contrary to DeBeers marketing slogan, the diamonds won’t last forever, yet the gaping holes left in the ground of Jwaneng will. The dangers of underground mining are glossed over in the official presentation, but will be real for the 94% Batswana work force who will be risking their lives to recover these gems when the mines go underground for recovery within the next 20 years. When the four pipes of kimberlite in Jwaneng are exhausted, what then?
I can’t help but see the experience as yet another example of how the time I spend in Africa will bring me personally full circle. Throughout the day, the facts and facets of diamonds and the figures and images of diamond mining swim through the haze of the dust in front of me. From the depths of my memory are mined thoughts of a girl, myself in a former life. A girl obsessed with diamonds, and preoccupied by the promise of one in particular, kept in wax paper, in a drawer by the bed. A girl wrapped up in the fairy tale of what a diamond represents and implies, the shiny symbol of perfectly planned life. The girl who would have traded anything to be standing where I am now, on the edge of a diamond mine, so near the rich Kimberlite veins that are home to the beautiful objects she coveted. To make the choice to chase the diamond would have ensured that she never came to be where I am right now. But the girl did trade that life, she became me, and is surprised to find that instead of the cheap thrills she expected, she’s overwhelmed by a sense of melancholy in the presence of her former idols. I guess the fairy tale is more complicated that it seemed.
No wonder Cinderella stuck with glass.
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