SOUTH AFRICA: Diamond mines are getting depleted

Record ID: 459285

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Diamond mines are getting depleted
  • Date: 8th October 2002
  • Summary: (L!1) KIMBERLEY, SOUTH AFRICA (AUGUST 2002) (REUTERS) LV BIG HOLE IN KIMBERLY LV/SV UNUSED MINE TOWER AND WHEEL (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KIMBERLEY, JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Business,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA8P1BQAMZTM1HGD6M0YGICOH3A
  • Story Text: Diamonds may be forever, but their quantities are getting depleted in South African mines, leaving a trail of jobless diamond miners behind.
    The Big Hole in Kimberley, the birthplace of South Africa's diamond mining industry. Diamonds may be forever, but their numbers in the Big Hole have reduced significantly. The mining sector was the biggest employer in and around the town of Kimberly. But in the 1990s, South Africa's mining industry went into recession and about 300,000 people lost their jobs.
    49 year old Eddy Sebela worked in the mines for two decades. He was retrenched ten years ago. Eddy's now working for De Beers again, this time with a company they own called Dumpco. Dumpco's workers will first sift through this soil for leftover diamonds.
    Then, they will fill up the abandoned mine shafts with the sifted earth. Any diamonds they find go to De Beers who sells them on the international market. The workers are supposed to get 50% of the sale price.
    "We don't know the whole value of the diamonds they sell it," explains Eddy Sebela. "Because we don't get a report of that. How much the diamonds cost to us. Like for the past two months, every shift when we look at our carats we get 36, 46 86 carats. But not, when it comes to money, there no money."
    Dumpco's workers use shovels and wheelbarrows -- reminiscent of mining practices a century ago. And once the last diamonds are harvested and the holes are filled, they will be unemployed once again. That's why critics like Gwede Mantashe describe De Beers's projects as cheap publicity stunts. He feels that giving former miners a few handouts isn't true empowerment.
    "I want to put an emphasis that you can't talk of sustainable development if you are not linking that to actually to skills development and restructuring the education to empower your society to a competitive society in all respect," says Mantashe.
    The Premium mine near Pretoria is expected to stop producing within the next 40 years. Cullinan Tours was set up by De Beers to begin exploiting tourist interest in the mine's activities and history. A small building near the Premium mine houses the Cullinan Jewellery School. De Beers, the South African Labour department and the National Lottery run it.
    Most of the students' parents work for De Beers.
    Pinky Mmamosebo a student at the jewellery school says, "Because I am still young I do not want to work yet. I want to go to Technikon to continue my course. After this continue my course, I want open my own business."
    And 60 metres underground in Kimberley, some people are still hard at work. Vincent Jonas is one of the lucky few.
    He's looking for new treasure, but this time not the hard shiny kind.
    The Big Hole Oyster Mushroom Farm is just one of the projects that De Beers is developing. The company hopes to create alternative employment for thousands of miners they retrenched.
    Jonas says, "Yes I was searching for a job and I found this job. But I didn't like it because it was the first time I was underground. My first job and growing mushrooms for the first time, is great."
    In 1997, South African diamond giant De Beers converted the mineshafts into the country's first underground mushroom farm. The climatic conditions inside the tunnels are perfect for growing mushrooms. Humidity is between 70 to 80% and the temperature is always above 20 Degrees Celsius. The farm produces at least a ton of mushrooms every week.
    Today's shift is over. Tomorrow will be another backbreaking day. It's tough work, but at least Eddy has a job. The sun sets over Kimberley's famous Big Hole and another dayfor the thousands who are still waiting for a second chance.
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