Diamond miners hope fate will shine on them one day

Diamond miners hope fate will shine on them one day

Text and photos by Ali Budiman

CEMPAKA, South Kalimantan (JP): It is the stuff that dreams
are made of for residents of this village, 50 kilometers from
Banjarmasin.

Haji Ahmad Bohari discovered a two-carat pink diamond worth Rp
260 million (more than US$30,000) this year, a spectacular find
that fueled hope for other diamond miners that fate will shine on
them one day.

They hold onto this dream as they wrestle with mud, their
bodies half-submerged, searching for diamonds in scorching
temperatures often reaching 33 degrees Celsius. Their hopes do
not fade even though they work day in and day out, five to 10
people in a team, with their small finds usually only enough to
cover the most basic of expenses.

Muhammad Fahmi is one of those who holds onto his dreams.

The 13-year-old boy is obsessed with becoming a Formula One
Ferrari driver, but deep down knows that his head is in the
clouds. He watches his favorite racers on his neighbor's
television, and three small posters of them hang on a faded
wooden wall in his tiny room.

It is easy to figure out what a young boy like Fahmi would do
if he came upon a miraculous find -- go on the haj pilgrimage,
then buy a sports car.

Fahmi, who left elementary school in 1998 due to a lack of
money, leaves every morning at 7:30 a.m. for a field not far from
his home. It is enough for this lanky, dark-skinned boy with big
eyes to return home with Rp 10,000 (US$1.20) paid for by the
diamond dealers who come to the site.

Once the stones have been polished, the diamonds are revealed,
one day to take their rightful place in a necklace or ring.

Hundreds of people have made their living at sites like
Cempaka since the Dutch colonial era, yet few wish to discuss the
ecological damage that has resulted from the activity. More than
10 large excavation sites now scar the valley, evidence of the
exploitation of the land with no thought for reclamation.

Every day of the week at about 7 a.m., a line of young and
middle-aged men, their skin baked from working in the sun, sets
off from simple plywood homes for the site, about two kilometers
away.

They have their own working groups. There are only one or two
women who are willing to toil in the mud and heat.

Each group has its own chief, usually the most experienced of
the men and someone who made a valuable find in the past. He
generally has enough money to pay for the group's meals on days
when they come up empty-handed, and to cover the cost of the gas
for the excavation machines and water pumps, which are vital for
the operation.

Although nothing is written down, the groups hold to a defined
system for the division of labor and the sharing of gains. The
owner of the land receives 10 percent and the owner of the
machines and the workers divide the remainder equally. Some of
the land and machine owners belong to a team; there are also
dealers, who often hold onto gems until the market perks up
before they sell them in Martapura or Banjarmasin.

Pandi Ya Anci, a 38-year-old father of four, is one of the
workers. His group found gems worth Rp 18 million in May of this
year. From that amount, Rp 1.8 million went to the owner of the
land, who is also Pandi's father in law. The rest was divided
between the machine operators and the group of eight excavators.
Once extras for food, drink and cigarettes were paid for, each of
the men received Rp 1 million.

Great finds are few and far between; the workers scrape by
with their daily earnings.

A 30-year-veteran of diamond mining, Haji Sain, said there
were distinctive signs of the presence of diamonds.

"Diamonds always have a 'friend', the patimahan stone, which
is gray like lead, or the emparan, which is a blackish-yellow,"
said the 65 year old, adding he had never suffered from
rheumatism or skin diseases despite the harsh site
conditions.

"It's as though the two stones are drawn by a magnet to
diamonds. That's why I take extra care when examining gravel
containing the two stones. If I see something shiny among them, I
hit it with a stone. If it breaks, then it isn't a diamond."

Before they are sent to jewelers, the uncut diamonds are
polished by expert hands. Tunggul Irang area, in the southern
part of Martapura, has gained a reputation for superb diamond
polishing.

Syamsudin, 46, operates from a small plywood house on Jl.
Melati. He is passing the skill down to younger generations; the
oldest of his four children, Syaifullah, 23, is already an
experienced diamond polisher.

The value of a diamond is judged on several factors: from its
weight in carats, to its rarity and color, based on a descending
hierarchy of pink, blue, white and yellow.