Making New Friends
You never know where life will take you or who you will meet along the way. On a recent trip to South Africa I had a nine hour lay-over in Ghana. While there I started chatting with a group of gentlemen who worked for an off shore drilling company. As we got to know each other better, they discovered not only was I a gemologist but a nerdy geologist as well. It was then they were kind enough to reveal to me that once-upon-a-time they had been involved in the off-shore diamond mining projects in Namibia. Naturally I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. Time flew by as they were happy to answer any and all of my questions and the bonus – they even shared pictures with me of their experience on the rigs!
Diamonds are typically mined off the west coasts of South Africa and Namibia.
Fun Facts: The first coastal diamond discovery in Namibia was near the town of Luderitz in 1908. Namibian diamond reserves for both land based mining and off-shore deposits have been estimated at 1.5 billion carats.
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