DIAMOND QUEST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22579, 18 November 1936, Page 10

DIAMOND QUEST

DIVERTING A RIVER I r IGHT AGAINST FLOODS SOUTH AFRICAN ENTERPRISE [from our own cobhkspoxdbnt] DURBAN", Oct. if) The discovery of a rich new diamond area in the Van! River, created by damming and diverting the waters, is announced l'rorn Kimborley. Stones of ]O6 and 137 carats have been recov. ered. Years ago a hill studded with diatnonds was discovered in this vicinity and it was named after its discoverer, Webster's Kopje. Hordes of diggers have ransacked the liill and left the earth all pock-marked. In the river below the hill, however, lies Webster's Pool, a treasure chest guarded by water. Other shallower pools of the Vaal had been surrounded by "horse shoe" breakwaters, pumped dry, and made to yield their diamonds. But not until this year was there a man bold enough to fight against floods and weather in the attempt to drain Webster's Pool to a depth of 60 feet. Previous Loss ol £IO,OOO Mr. B. Goldberg, a Kimberlev diamond buyer, financed the scheme. Last year he tried to raise the riches of Christmas Pool further down the river. Landslides and floods swept away the work (and the £IO,OOO Mr. Goldherg had spent) before a single diamond could be recovered. Now Mr. Goldberg has risked £16,000 on the Webster's Pool venture. He believes his engineering plan is so sound that he will be able to return to the work next year after the rains, repair the damage cheaply and win back something more than the amount in jeopardy. Emptying the pool meant building a breakwater 500 feet long and blasting a side channel through nearly a mile of rock to divert the whole of the Vaal Rivfr - , Nearly a mile of diamondiferous nrer bed has been exposed as a result of this venture, or, as they measure out the .Vaal, 1000 el a inn. Captain Wetuter'g Luck But diamonds are not to be picked up without labour, even in the untouched depths of the pool. There are boulders to be drilled, dynamited and torn out of the mud by cranes. Thf natives work waist deep, shovelling away the over-burden, tracing the seam of rich gravel down to five or 15 feet, and loading the heavy iron buckets that go swinging up to the washing machines. . , The river diggings are almost finished. The work at Webster's Pool and similar schemes at other places have given a respite to the dyin.-j; industry. The pool seems likely to bring bark something more than memories of the old days, somethink like the luck of Captain Webster, whose stony kopje was the hiding place of £500,000.