Diamond Exploration in India: Retrospect and Prospect

India was the first country in the world to recognize diamond as the hardest mineral which could be used to polish and pierce holes even in the hardest rocks. Its use as a gem with a brilliant lustre came to be recognized later. Its fame spread all over the world by travelers like Pliney, Marco Polo, Nikitin, Nicolas Konti and others. The most famous of them was the French traveler Tavernier, who made six voyages to India, personally visited many mines in operation, collected diamonds and introduced them to Europe. Venetian cutters, who were expert gem cutters, enhanced their attraction by their brilliance and extraordinary lustre. It became the gem of royalty. With increasing demand from all parts of the world, Indian diamond industry reached its zenith in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. The very attraction of diamonds and their phenomenal value brought hordes of invaders whose only object was loot and plunder. A great country which was the pride of the East was ruined and its people reduced to poverty. With the fall of Indian royalty, the diamond industry became virtually dead, most of the mines abandoned, and today India does not find a place in the list of diamond producing countries.

The Geological Survey of India was formed by the East India Company in 1851 and interest in diamonds was revived but when the geologists found that diamonds were distributed over large areas in river deltas, and were not concentrated in any particular rock, amenable for mining and for making quick profit, their interest dwindled and the position did not improve even after India gained independence. The development of India's mineral wealth was never high on the agenda of the governments in power. Mineral surveys did continue but with lack of financial and organizational support ended up only with the discovery of few kimberlite pipes. Investigations were not pursued with the vigour needed to identify prospects, prove their economic viability and leading to the establishment of productive mines. Governments at the Central and State levels failed to realize that minerals are important in developing the country's economy.

Rest of the world, during the same period, made great advances. The source of diamond was traced and identified as a special type of a pipe rock at Kimberley in South Africa in 1870. The wealth produced from this mine spawned many mining industries and led to the discovery of new pipes in other parts of Africa. Great advances were made in kimberlite exploration. Basic research for locating diamond-bearing pipe rocks was given utmost importance. The new knowledge enabled opening up many parts of the world for development of the diamond industry, notably in Brazil, Australia, Russia and lately in Canada. All the advances in sister sciences like physics and chemistry were brought to shed new light on the characterization and identification of diamond-bearing rocks. New technologies developed, studies on diamond genesis and research vastly expanded, ranging from planetary studies of the solar system to geochemical studies of the deep mantle. India has yet to make a mark in these fields.

The development of plate tectonics since 1970 and the idea of continents coming together to form supercontinents and separating more than once in the past, has opened up new areas for exploration. While previously kimberlite was known as the only source of diamond, there are now metamorphic diamonds formed along collision zones, and diamonds generated by impacts of planetary bodies. Advances in nano technology has made it possible to grow diamonds of even larger sizes under laboratory conditions. These are exciting new developments.

There have been some significant discoveries of pipe rocks in India in recent years but their diamondiferous character and economic grade have yet to be established. A team of trained men well versed in new technology have to get busy in identifying economic prospects which can be developed into new mines. Proterozoic Cuddapah basin with its semicircular distribution of flows and the newly discovered fields of the Bastar craton have to be more intensely explored. There is urgent need for integrating knowledge gathered by geophysics with the findings of geologists and the inputs provided by geochemistry. Adequate and effective training, more intensive exploration, more selective targeting and purposeful effort may bring about a welcome revival of an old industry which at one time attracted the whole world. By its very nature diamond mining is an industry which requires large amount of risk capital where decisions have to be taken quickly. A highly bureaucratic governmental set-up is not conducive to significant progress.

While diamond exploration has languished in India, the diamond cutting and polishing industry with a history extending to nearly 2000 years has continued to thrive. Nine out of ten diamonds marketed in the world today are cut and polished in India. The industry has to be modernized, with healthy living conditions provided to the large number of artisans. There is no reason why India should not regain its past glory of being the home of the most exquisite and brilliant gemstone of the world set in the most attractive forms of jewellery.