Diamonds still sparkle in Brazil

A couple of weeks ago, I learned that a diamond mine had recently opened in Brazil when I read that its production had been stolen!  Everywhere thieves are better informed than the general populace, including this blogger, a former geologist.  The mine is located near the town of Nordestina in the State of Bahia and its production could remove Brazil from the wilderness as far as diamond mining is concerned, and propel it to the 11^th position among world diamond producers.

Brazil still has a long way to go to regain its former notoriety: it dominated the diamond production and trade during the 18^th and 19^th centuries[1] until 1866 when fifteen year old Erasmus Jacobs discovered the 21-carat Eureka diamond in the gravel of the Orange River in what is now South Africa.

Diamonds have been used since 600 BC.  They were first identified in India in the Mahajanapada Empire.  For centuries, people used the rough stones as a cutting tool to carve and engrave. The stones also served as currency, chips in card games, lucky charms, adornments and were valued for their healing properties.  Diamond cutting and polishing began in 14^th century Germany.  The first diamond ring was offered by Maximillian of Austria to his bride Mary of Burgundy in 1477.  In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, the Golconda region near the historic city of Hyderabad held the richest deposits; the Koh-i-noor and the famous Blue Hope diamond (sold to the Sun King of France) were both found in this region.  Diamonds were found in the gravel and sand of river banks.

India’s diamond monopoly ended in 1725 when gold diggers in the Minas Gerais (MG) region of Brazil discovered a shiny stone.  It was identified as a diamond by Sabastiāo Leme do Prado, a Portuguese man who had previously travelled to India.  The diamond rush piggy backed that of gold which had stated some 20 years earlier.  After two hundred years of colonization, Brazil had finally become the Eldorado of Portugal!  Gold and diamond mining changed Brazil forever.  In 1763 the capital of the colony was moved from Salvador da Bahia to Rio de Janeiro for a closer state control of the mining production.  The 18^th century diamond rush started in Arraial do Tijoco, now the town of Diamantina MG; Portuguese immigrants, fortune hunters, bandeirantes[2], African slaves and former slaves mined together on the banks of the Jequitinhonha River.  To protect the Crown’s gold and diamond monopoly, the Portuguese built a multilayered bureaucracy which as expected fueled a flourishing smuggling business and rampant corruption.  Some people claim that the first blood diamonds were mined in Brazil.  It is a stretch.  Back-breaking mining was no picnic for the slaves (see pic below).  Surely some areas might have been lawless, but the Tijoco was not war zone, and slave owners did not compare to African warlords.  Mining bankrolled the fancies of the royal family, the reconstruction of Lisbon which had been destroyed by the 1755 earthquake and launched the economy of Minas Gerais.

The mining boom also benefited many African slaves who, taking advantage of the free-for-all, smuggled gold nuggets and diamonds to buy their freedom.  By becoming slave owners themselves, some became rich and politically influent in the community.  The boom also helped female slaves, but in a less hands-on way.  Female slaves customarily doubled as wives and concubines, a long-established practice from the 16^th century when single colonizers found solace with Indian women.  Portuguese men were much less racially prejudiced[3] than their American peers.  It was not uncommon for mulato male offsprings to be sent to Portugal for studies and girls married-up.  The diamond boom is forever associated with the story of a clever and ambitious mixed race slave named Chica da Silvia.  Born a slave, she lived like a queen!  For many years, she was the live-in partner of Joāo Fernandes de Oliveira, Tijoco’s powerful mining official.  They had 13 children together; at the beginning their relationship was frowned upon, but he freed her.  Social advancement through sex is as old as mankind, but in Tijoco it led to freedom, wealth and matriarchal respect.

Although alluvial or secondary diamonds continue to be extracted by small prospectors, the new mine sits on a kimberlite pipe where primary diamonds can sometimes be found.  Of all pipes explored, it is estimated that only 15% have diamonds and just 1% with economic grade.  Brazil has many known kimberlite bodies, but exploration is still little developed, hampered by bureaucracy, lack of security, high investment cost and uncertainty about diamond appeal. 

The diamond market faces a conundrum beyond its usual mining challenge; the diamond as a token of love and commitment is being tested by the evolution of mating preferences.  Market pundits are still debating whether Millennials are interested in diamonds. Conversely, Brazilian thieves have proved that they have no such cerebral hang ups.

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[1] In the 1850s, Brazil exported some 200,000 carats, 80% of Europe’s total imports.

[2] The bandeirantes were descendants of the first and second-generations of Portuguese settlers. They came mostly from the region of Sāo Paulo and pushed inland to colonize frontier territories in search of gold, diamonds, land and slaves.

[3] In the 2011 census, 43.1% of the Brazilian population defined itself as mixed race.