DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22619, 6 January 1937, Page 13

DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS

RACE AGAINST TIME FORTUNE IN BED OF RIVER [from our own correspondent] CAPETOWN, Dec. 20 At Webster's Pool, in the famous Kimberley diamond district, a man is fighting against time to win a fortune from the bed of the Vaal Biver. He is Mr. B. Goldberg, who has built one of the most extensive breakwaters yet made with a structure hitherto unknown in river diggings. Diamonds worth £4OOO were extracted from the river bed in a week of working. But now the diggers are working at high pressure for tlu; rainy season has started and the river is expected to come down in full force anv day. Work will then have to be suspended lor about seven months. Until recently the men were working with success on those parts of the claims where the gravel was exposed and free from any overlay of mud. Now, however, they have reached the claims where they have to combat the effects of a landslide which took place last August. As the result of pumping operations and the consequent removal of water support' from the banks ol the river the topmost layers of sand on tho bank were precipitated into the pool and covered the ground. Some of this mud overlay has been removed and good, payable gravel has been revealed. Mr. Goldberg plans to build a new breakwater on another stretch of river covering an area of three miles. He is determined to go on until he wins through in his gamble with nature and recovers the money he has spent.