Video: The glitter of diamonds and the poverty of its miners: how jewels fall from dirty mines to shop windows
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Usually, passing by the windows of jewelry stores, we involuntarily stop, fascinated by the glitter of precious diamonds. Admiring all this splendor, no one will be able to imagine how many human souls died before these treasures became an ornament on someone's neck or finger.
The most beautiful diamonds in the world are mined by the poorest segments of the population in African countries such as Congo and Sierra Leone. Sometimes people in mines work just for food. Photographer Kadir van Leusen has made an interesting collection of pictures, reflecting the path of diamonds, from dirty mines to the windows of the most expensive jewelry stores.
All gem deposits are controlled by armed groups that oversee the work of the country's poorest people. As the miners themselves say, the work in the diamond mines does not stop for a minute. Around the clock, seven times a week, people work only for food. If they find a diamond, they receive a symbolic cash prize.
After mining, the diamonds go to the tables of the grinders. The city of Surat is considered the world center for stone processing. 70-80 percent of mined diamonds are polished here. Among the workers one can see both elders, wise by experience, and young boys. Many of them live in the workshop grounds. According to the 13-year-old Yogesh, he polishes diamonds from 8 am to 8 pm. His earnings are 50 euros per month. Only once a year is a guy allowed to visit his parents.
After processing, all diamonds are sent for inspection to New York or India, after that - to jewelry stores.
Interest in jewelry will never disappear. One of the most famous jewelry brands is house of Faberge. His works of art are extremely rare, shrouded in secrets, and their cost reaches tens of millions of dollars.
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