Blood, Sweat and Earth: The Struggle for Control over the World’s Diamonds Throughout History

433 Pages·2021·15.982 MB·English

by  Tijl Vanneste

Blood, Sweat and Earth

B L O O D , S W E A T
A N D E A R T H
The Struggle for Control
over the World’s Diamonds
Throughout History
Tijl Vanneste
reaktion books
For Nina and Sarah, two of the shiniest diamonds
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
Unit 32, Waterside
44–48 Wharf Road
London n1 7ux, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2021
Copyright © Tijl Vanneste 2021
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the publishers
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by TJ Books Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
ISBN 978 1 78914 435 2
contents
7
Introduction
1 Asian Diamonds: The Discovery of a Luxury
Commodity, 50 ce–1785 23
2 Slavery and Monopolies: Diamonds in
Colonial Brazil, 1720–1821 79
3 The Rollercoaster towards Industrial Modernity,
1785–1884 119
4 Building a Worldwide Empire:
The Century of De Beers, 1884–1990 169
5 The Enduring Attraction of Alluvial Mining,
1884–2018 238
6 Mining in the Western World: The Twenty-first-century
Collapse of the World De Beers Created 276
Epilogue: About Human Rights and
Environmental Considerations 316
References 329
Select Bibliography 420
Acknowledgements 423
Photo Acknowledgements 425
Index 426
1 Kimberlite pipe based on Kimberley’s Big Hole
and its historical evolution.
Introduction
The so-called volcanic pipes peculiar to all diamond-mines are simply
holes bored in the solid earth by the impact of monstrous meteors
. . . Bizarre as such a theory appears, I am bound to admit that there
are many circumstances which show that the notion of the Heavens
raining diamonds is not impossible.1
his description was written in 1908, and the man who wrote it
Tbelieved in the possibility that diamonds came from outer space.
Relying on the knowledge of his time, he could not have known
that while he was not right, he was not exactly wrong either. Following
the discovery of enormous diamond deposits in Kimberley, South Africa,
during the 1870s, the theory that these gemstones occurred in deep under-
ground pipes became well established in the scientific community. The
‘so-called volcanic pipes’ that contained diamonds, described in the art-
icle, soon became known as ‘kimberlite pipes’ after the town of Kimberley,
where they had first been found (illus. 1). It was a revolutionary discovery
with enormous consequences, as until that moment, diamonds had only
been mined near the earth’s surface, in or near riverbeds.
Today it is understood that kimberlite pipes are the remnants of vol-
canic eruptions that mostly took place during the geological period known
as the Cretaceous (146 million to c. 65.5 million years ago).2 Commercially
viable deposits of diamonds are only found in a small fraction of them,
1 per cent of the 7,000 known pipes.3 Diamonds are formed as carbon
allotropes at high pressure and temperature in the earth’s mantle, situ-
ated at least 150 kilometres (93 mi.) beneath the continental crust, or 200
kilometres (124 mi.) under the oceanic crust, after which they are carried
to the surface within kimberlite, a type of magmatic rock (illus. 2).4 A
recent study has shown that these deep breeding grounds might contain
many more diamonds than researchers previously thought.5
7
blood, sweat and earth
While no one doubts that the kimberlite pipes have their origins
in the depths of our planet, astrophysicists discovered in 1987 that tiny
presolar diamond grains existed in meteors.6 The formation of diamonds
in space is not yet fully understood, but more recent findings suggest that
the size of diamonds found in meteors may be larger than has hitherto
been thought, meaning that the 1908 article might be right after all.7
It is not hard to imagine why William Crookes, the article’s author,
was so taken with the idea of diamonds raining from the heavens. An
origin in the stars fits the glamorous image carried by the most precious
of gems much better than a genesis in the deep, muddy underground of
our planet. Throughout history, the glitter that surrounds diamonds has
been carefully constructed, using stories of large and famous diamonds
possessed by the richest of the rich and tapping into Western oriental-
ist fantasies about exotic diamond mines in mysterious locations. This
imagery culminated in twentieth-century advertising campaigns that
connected diamonds not only with glamour but with romantic ideals of
fidelity and marriage. This modern branding made diamonds accessible to
more consumers than ever before, a necessity after the hugely e xpanding
production of diamonds in modern times.
Some argue that the success of the diamond, rated the most precious
of all gems, is artificial, designed to accommodate those who are in con-
trol of them, and that its success came in spite of, and not because of, the
2 Kimberlite found at Dutoitspan mine.
8
Introduction
intrinsic qualities of the stone. Unlike more colourful and unique gem-
stones, diamonds mostly look alike, often without colour and cut in the
same form – the modern, round brilliant (illus. 17).8 Yet while De Beers,
the company that controlled both the production of and trade in diamonds
for most of the twentieth century, succeeded so well in selling to the world
unprecedented amounts of little colourless stones, the idea that diamonds
are very precious goes back to antiquity. At first, though, diamonds were
not appreciated for their beauty. An uncut, rough diamond does not look
very special, but it is extremely hard, and that hardness, combined with
their premodern rarity, led to the use of rough diamonds in amulets that
provided magic protection to those wearing them, in Europe as well as in
Asia. This symbolic use of diamonds all but disappeared in Europe during
the Middle Ages following the spread of Christianity, and medieval lapi-
daries held the diamond in much lower esteem than other precious stones
such as rubies and emeralds.9
One practice that did continue was medicinal, and diamond jewellery
was used to ward off illness, as noted by the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis of
1691: ‘the diamond is the hardest of all gems. It is never given inwardly, but
only worn as Rings, Etc. So it’s said to take away Fears, Melancholy, and
to strengthen the heart.’10 By that time, however, medicinal use was mar-
ginal in comparison to the establishment of diamonds as things of beauty.
The development of cutting techniques, culminating in the invention of the
brilliant, has given diamonds their highly appreciated lustre, which is the
appearance of a diamond in reflected light, and attractive fire, which is
the sparkle that one sees when light is travelling through the stone, deflected
through its multiple facets, the polished surfaces of a cut stone. Indeed,
consumers increasingly began to believe that diamonds could strengthen
the heart, not as medicine, but as things of beauty that could last forever.
It is after the early modern development of cutting techniques and
the parallel trends of growing production and consumption that the main
role of diamonds solidified as gemstones set in jewellery, an appreciation
that continues today. More than 12,000 categories exist to classify rough
diamonds, crudely divided into three types: from high to low, these are
gem quality, near-gem quality and industrial. Most commercial profit is,
of course, made from selling gem-quality stones. These are what most
people think of when considering diamonds. They are cut and polished to
be used in jewellery or as single stones. Today, the value of such diamonds
9