Ghana Diamond Mine Expects Record Year

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31134, 10 August 1966, Page 22

Ghana Diamond Mine Expects Record Year

(N .Z. P.A.-Reuter) AKWATIA, (Ghana). The diamond town of Akwatia, deep in the heart of the West African bush, has forecast a record 2.4 million carats in its 1966 working year, which ended on June 30. The final figures will come out in the annual report of the Consolidated African Selection Trust in London, in September. The total last year was 2 million carats. The greatly increased output for 1966 is attributed to the big, new improved treatment plant which cost £1 million. For weight of production, Akwatia is the second largest diamond mine in the world. Most of its output is industrial, only about 20 per cent of its diamonds being suitable for use in jewellery. The mine, which has been exploited for nearly 44 years, is in a concession of 60 square miles in the basin of the Birim river, in typical, dense Akim forest country. It is entirely British owned and the capital involved is between £8 million and £lO million. Out of £1,967,000 profit last year, 75 per cent went on taxation. In mining circles it is thought that Ghana must be one of the few countries where taxation is so high. One comment heard is that 60 per cent taxation is about the maximum that the mining industry generally can bear. It is hoped that some tax relief may come from the new regime, especially as it is trying to encourage foreign investment in mining in Ghana. An immediate gain from the overthrow of the Nkrumah government is that the trust can now sell its diamonds direct in London. It no longer has to sell first to the government and accept what the government thought to be a fair price for the! diamonds. Diamond mining is on the surface. The diggers rarely go deeper than 15 feet; the diamonds “hang” in valleys into which they were washed

by streams thousands of years ago. When prospectors are sure about their “find,” dragline shovels are used to strip off what is called the overburden of soil. Then the same machinery is used to scoop up the gravel down to the decomposed bedrock line. This is carried away in lorries to the treatment plant for milling, washing and sorting. It is estimated that in every cubic yard of gravel excavated, there are two carats of diamonds, worth about £2 10s a carat. The driver of a dragline shovel can deal with 1000 yards of mine face in a day. The new treatment plant is really four plants in one. The gravel is milled, washed, sorted and the diamonds extracted through a fine mesh. The slimy mud is pumped away to a huge reservoir, where it settles. The useless gravel is carried away to a dump—not unlike a slag heap outside a colliery, only a better colour—which has reached a height of 100 feet since the plant opened.