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Diamonds have been highly valued by mankind for more than 3000 years. Made almost entirely of carbon, diamonds are the world's oldest substance. At 3.3 billion years of age, they are almost as old as Earth itself. Diamonds only form under extremely intense temperature and extremely intense pressure. The only place on Earth these conditions are found naturally is 100 miles underground. Volcanic explosions lift diamonds and other minerals to the surface.
The History Channel's Diamond Mines starts out looking at modern-day diamond mines in Botswana, including the massive security measures taken to process them. From there, the documentary goes into a history of diamonds. The first mines were in Brazil and India, later dwarfed by discoveries in South Africa. It's interesting to see how ingenious people have had to be in order to mine in some of the more remote locations. Diamond Mines takes a look at the Arctic mining operation in Russia, where they must mine through permafrost, land that has not thawed since before the last ice age. In remote northwest Canada, a lake had to be drained in order to mine from the pipe at the bottom. The documentary shows footage of all of these places.
Along with a history of mining, Diamond Mines also covers the history of De Beers and how they have maintained their hold on the diamond market for more than a century.
Towards the end of the video, diamond cutting is covered. Though some smaller diamonds are shaped by lasers driven by computers, master diamond cutters, serving an apprenticeship of five years before they are considered proficient, still do most of the crafting by hand.
Diamond Mines finishes up by looking at how men figured out how to make diamonds synthetically, and how even peanut butter can be made into a diamond under the right circumstances.
At about 50 minutes, Diamond Mines is a bit on the short side, at least if you're considering buying the video. But if you have an interest in diamonds, it might be worth checking out from the library, or picking up if you find it on sale.
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