The risk in sending security forces to protect the area from illegal mining is that they may become part of the trade, says Kabemba. People are worried that if the state comes in they might not benefit as they should, he said. Southern Africa Resource Watch executive director Claude Kabemba said that people are concerned about possible government corruption. The hectic digging may have been partly driven by the fear among local diggers that the government might fail to compensate them for their findings. With "a lot of dolerites all over the place there," there is a possibility that the gems may turn out to be quartz crystals, though he doesn't want to rule out the claims of diamonds having been found. which isn't a bulletproof tell-tale sign but one that reduces the oddsĭr Gideon Groenewald, a geologist from South Africa, said in an interview that kimberlite looks similar to dolerite and that in the area of KwaZulu-Natal where people started digging, there are "severe intrusions of dolerites". So far, the current events in the town near Ladysmith have not reached such dramatic scales, partly because experts are still busy authenticating them.Į&T's analysis shows that the site in South Africa is a long way away from the clusters of other established diamond mining sites. The situation culminated in 10,000 illegal artisanal miners working tiny plots, triggering a water, sanitation and housing crisis. A government takeover accelerated the momentum in subsequent months. Similar scenes last witnessed during the great diamond rush in Marange, Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands, in September 2006, when a mineral rush broke out that had devastating consequences. Images from last week’s scene of labouring gem diggers in the small South African town of KwaHlathi featured exhausted men and women, some with children strapped to their backs. There is hardly space to stand, let alone dig another hole.
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