The global diamond trade has many economical, social, and environmental factors that deeply impact our earth’s geography. Mining for diamonds is one of the most resource-heavy and time-consuming process that companies invest their efforts in. With all the different ways to mine diamonds, such as open pit/underground mining, alluvial mining, marine mining, and informal diamond digging, we impact the sta Diamond mines have taken place in Canada, Russia, Brazil, Australia, and many other countries in southern and west Africa.
Due to the controversy of conflict diamonds, otherwise known as “blood diamonds”, it is now more common to trade diamonds amongst Canada and Australia because of their better economical conditions. In Africa, diamonds can be found in Botswana, Angola, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Tanzania, Nambia. Africa is known as continent rich with minerals, but diamonds from some of these African countries are noticed as conflict diamonds since the money is used to fund civil wars and other human rights violations.
Mining has been notoriously known for being an inherently destructive industry in many different ways. Some of the major physical damages that diamond mining has caused are erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water by chemicals from mining processes. Besides creating environmental damage, the contamination resulting from leakage of chemicals also affects the health of the local population.
