Diamond Digging Tools

Shovel and Trowel

• Shovels and trowels are used to dig in the soil. Long-handled shovels come in many shapes including round-point, square, scoop, perforated and sawtooth. Trowels are also good tools for digging and can be pointed or flat. A scoop-shaped trowel is usually used in quarrying for diamonds.

Saruca

• A Saruca is a special screened tool used in diamond prospecting to sift and separate mud and dirt from diamonds and other gems. Sarucas are round and can be either flat or concave; a standard diameter is 14.25 inches, and they can be up to 1 inch deep if concave. Mesh sizes vary; 16 mesh is used for sifting for smaller gems, and number 8 mesh for larger ones.

Gravel Pumps

• Gravel pumps are used to mine diamonds in rivers, lakes or oceans. The gravel pump has a pipe which is inserted into the seabed and vacuums up sediment that may contain particulate diamonds. The sediment is then pumped to the surface where it is sieved to separate diamond from the other unwanted materials.

Classifiers, Diamond Jigs and Dredges

• After the quarried diamond mixture passes through the gravel pumps, the classifier removes the sand and gravel; only the potential mixture in which diamonds may be found is preserved. After the classifier process, diamond jigging is the step in which the final sorting procedure takes place. A diamond jigger is a mechanical sieve used to separate diamonds from other unwanted material. Finally, dredges are used to pump out the remaining mixture from beneath the water to the land.