Diamonds – A Short History

The Bakerville alluvial diamond deposits in the Lichtenburg Diamond Fields, South Africa (image courtesy of IGE Resources AB)

We will never know which of our ancestors first interacted with diamonds or what they thought of them. However it seems that some of the earliest mining of diamonds occurred as many as 3,000 years ago, where humans began mining in alluvial deposits in Southern India. What’s an alluvial deposit?

This is due to many factors:

1. Diamonds are beautiful to the eye.
2. Diamonds tend to last.
3. There are enough to go around. Well sort of…..
4. They are well promoted.