How to Mine for Diamonds
This was a diamond mining area near Santa Elana Venezuela. We used this old but reliable excavator to strip off the overburden, then jumped down into the pit and loosened up the gravels which made it much easier to Hydraulic mine the exposed very rich Diamond bearing gravels.
This was a diamond mining area near Santa Elana Venezuela. We used this old but reliable excavator to strip off the overburden, then jumped down into the pit and loosened up the gravels which made it much easier to Hydraulic mine the exposed very rich Diamond bearing gravels.
The local miners used this system very effectively. Just down stream from this man we had a 4" gravel pump that pumped the sand to a Venezuela style jig that recovered our Diamonds. We yielded many 2 1/2 Carat Diamonds from this stretch of Jungle. While there was some fine gold recovered.
It was not enough to be of economic value at the time. I had a washplant about three kilometers away and I tested several area's like this and it really helped in defining our reserve's.
