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.

Additional pictures available at the advice on THE RING Facebook page.