Read Online Digging Deeper: An Adventure Novel (Sam Harris Series Book 1) by PJ Skinner - Free Book Online Page A

cabinet.’
    ‘The concentrated material in the bins is transported from the plants at the river to the other side of this plant, where it’s further concentrated and then divided into size fractions.  The larger the grain size of the concentrate, the bigger the diamonds found in that fraction.  These fractions are then sent through a Sortex machine on a conveyor belt.’
    ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what that is.’
    ‘It’s a relatively new technology that separates the diamonds from the other material in the concentrate by irradiating it with ultraviolet light as it passes through the machine on a small conveyor belt.  Any diamonds present in the concentrate fluoresce when hit by the ultraviolet light, and this fluorescence triggers an automatic jet of air, which blows the diamond off the conveyor with a small amount of concentrate.  This material is then pushed automatically through a pipe and dropped into the picking cabinet through holes in the top of it.’
    When the picking was finished, the pickers were sent home to Kardo village and the sorters took over.  They started by sieving the diamonds into size fractions. At the far end of the bench, more gloves were employed for use in weighing and sorting the diamonds into envelopes.  Once the diamonds were sorted into sizes, they were removed from the recovery table and placed in a huge safe at the back of the room.  The safe room had two doors leading to an inner room with another safe in it.  There were strong boxes in the inner safe, which acted as temporary storage for the diamonds until they had to be moved.
    The diamonds were still in their natural rough state. 
    ‘I've never seen unpolished diamonds in bulk before,’ said Sam. ‘They don’t look like much do they?  It looks like the glass from a car crash.’
    ‘Their appearance is deceptive,’ said Jim.  ‘These diamonds are gem quality with a large size and minimal flaws, meaning that they sell for very high prices at auction.  That’s why Gemsite can afford to pay big expatriate salaries and cargo costs.’ 
    Sam could see that the diamonds were large and some of them had perfect shapes.  No wonder people were fighting over the right to mine these lands.
    They left through security and went out to the front room again, where Jim inserted his hand though a rubber sleeve into a sealed iron box and pulled out a black ball which he gave to the guard.  He nodded at her to do the same.
    She hung back, unwilling to put her hand into the box.
    ‘Put your hand into the rubber sleeve and pull out a ball,’ said Jim.
    ‘Why do I have to do this?’ asked Sam.
    ‘This box of balls acts as a filter for randomised security checks. You have to pull a ball out of the box and show it to the security guard.  If you pulled out a black ball, you can go.  If the ball is white, you have to empty your pockets and so on for the guards to check.    A South African guy, who got the white ball the first time he went out through security, was made to strip and bend over as a joke.  He was on his own and didn’t know any better.’
    She was glad that she was not alone and was happy to get a black ball and leave with her dignity intact.
    The next day, they returned to the diamond recovery plant to supervise a second weighing of the diamonds which were to be soaked in hydrofluoric acid (HF) for cleaning.  The diamonds were first boiled in ceramic saucepans to give them an initial clean and then they were decanted into plastic bottles.  HF was poured into the bottles on top of a table in a small, unventilated room full of observers and security men. 
    Sam found it bizarre to see HF handled with such abandon.  It was a corrosive acid, and if spilled on skin, caused a horrible death by eating through the flesh.  It could not be washed off with water.  Only special creams prevented it from burning right through flesh and she could only see one small tube.  There was a fume extractor in the room but