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Gold/Mining/Energy : A CANADIAN DIAMOND HUNT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bill who wrote (355)	6/24/1998 4:16:00 PM
From: Lilian Debray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 930

Although diamond is the hardest known mineral, it is also one of the most susceptible to cleavage. Because of its cubic molecular structure, it is very easy to break if force is applied along the direction of a plane of carbon atoms where the C-C bonds are weaker and will not resist stretching and compressing.

To: bill who wrote (355)	6/24/1998 5:43:00 PM
From: Ray Hughes	Respond to of 930

Hi Bill, Mostly you don't blast kimberlite. Its clay-like minerals swell and soften upon short term exposure to moisture. This swelling causes Kimberlite to readily soften and cave into drawpoints. I've crumbled kimberlite in one hand into its constituent grains. Darned near got shot for doing it - ain't supposed to touch the company's ore (Knobby William's joke)! Internally flawed diamonds remain largely whole going to crusher. A flawed diamond might as well be broken into remaining un-flawed sections during crushing - who buys flawed stones? Floating head crusher will do that without breaking un-flawed stones. Its designed to do that. However, flawed stones smaller than the larger un-flawed stones might not be broken up during crushing because the larger un-flawed stones stop the crusher's floating head from descending lower. (These smaller stones may subsequently be reduced to un-flawed segments by the air-blast sorting process - its designed, in part, to do that). Control stones (coloured for identity) can be introduced to crusher feed to assure the entire system is functioning as designed. Its done this way TODAY in Africa so reports of stones breaking is quite ordinary. Generically speaking, reports of stones breaking may be a cover-up of an orginal mis-calculation or mis-representation of gross value of diamond in ore. RH