What are alluvial/artisanal diamonds?
The terms alluvial and artisanal are frequently paired together, and often used interchangeably although they have slightly different designations. Typically, diamonds originate from geologic rock formations called kimberlites. Alluvial diamonds are diamonds that have been carried by rivers and streams away from their original kimberlite rock sources and now rest in small deposits. Rather than use industrial machinery to mine these diamonds as is used in kimberlite pipes where large collections of diamonds remain close to their source– these diamonds are mined using artisanal mining techniques. Artisanal mining involves digging and sifting through mud, sand and gravel with shovels, sieves, and other simple equipment. Skilled manual laborers carry out the work in contrast to the heavy machinery used in large industrial diamond mines to pull out large deposits of diamonds at once. Artisnal mining comprises 40 percent of total diamond mining. Some of the larger mines in South Africa or B
