We seldom think of the process of mining diamonds. Natural diamonds, unlike fake or synthetic diamonds, are mined from the earth. The two methods by which diamonds can be mined are Pipe Mining and Alluvial Mining.

The world’s diamonds are extracted from the earth through volcanic pipes when pipe mining is used. These are natural pipes in the ground. By putting shanks next to the pipes, tunnels are bored into the deepest parts of the pipe. The diamonds do not get sorted at the mine. Only big rocks containing diamonds are expelled from the mine. They are later moved to a screening plant for separation.

The Alluvial mining method takes place in beaches and riverbeds. To hold back the water, walls are built and the sand on the beach is removed with a bulldozer till the level of the earth where the diamonds are found can be reached. The diamonds are also not sorted here. The sand that contains the diamonds is put into trucks, and moved to screening plants.