Sure you've been there. You've stood right on top of them and never gave it a second thought. Diamonds. Yes, beautiful gems oozing from an ancient shaft of Kimberlite. Perfect raw gemstones from a million years ago--and you simply threw you beer cans and bottles on top of millions of dollars worth of wealth. Smoked your cigarettes, looked cool, tossed the butts on diamonds never knowing what we know now. The unmarked mining trucks came from South Africa and eased into Eunice under darkness. We all thought it only oil field equipment, but it was high tech exploration of another kind. One of the worlds premier mines had been discovered and secrecy was top priority. Complete gemstone laboratories on wheels had set up shop and were already evaluating the find of the century.....

Bev:  What I want to know is the exact location!

Mokey:  bev, i doubt mr. elliot is telling a truisim. me thinks he may be trying to generate a little economy boom for eunice. or, he may be trying to get thousands of women to come there. you know that diamonds are a girl's best friend and they may go "searching". in any case, it's a nice story.

Bev:  Morene, The one thing that I have learned about Glenn-He loves to through out an intersting story line and then leave us hanging. We will not get the next part until we can stand it no longer. GLEENNNN!  Where are you?

Diamonds cont'd....Nothing attracts human avarice more than diamonds. Antwerp markets soared on the prospect that the major new find announcement was imminent. But where? Who could ever imagine such a location. Oil, yes--but diamonds!And what was the new mines name? Lorene? What does it mean?Meanwhile processing plants were built on the outskirts of town, but still no indicators pointed to the location of the source. Tons of overburden earth began to move on huge mining trucks at night. The noise was deafening. And the most puzzling question of all was the unusual composition of the earth-bearing component mixed with the Kimberlite...

Annie:  Glenn, You're the undisputed master of suspense on classmates! Love your stories and your choice of locales........Annie

Diamonds....cont'd...Meanwhile Lorene (name changed to protect the innocent) reveled in the glory that a famous new diamond find had been named for her, and her alone. She dreamed of the ad campaign: "Du Beers has its Star of Hope--but only Eunice Has Lorene." Has a ring to it, eh? Move over Elizabeth Tayor!  Kimberlites are the narrow, pipelike fissures containing high-pressure minerals oozing through the continentl crust. They are unusual ultramafic rocks explosively emplaced from deep within the mantle. They are serpentinized mica perotites containing a variety of minerals including diamonds. Most are often found with alkaline basaltic rocks and carbonatites.....

Diamonds cont'd...Carbon? Carbonate? Could it possibly be true that the oozing mixture mixed with even calcium carbonate? Scientific minds were puzzled. Lowly calcium carbonate is hardly the royalty soil for diamonds. It's a leached out soluable commonly known as caliche. Caliche? And what would caliche do to affect a diamond's color? Time would tell. Excitement grew in the labs. Speculation ran rampant. And was it possible, then, that this simple overburden of white powder had been spread all over lease roads, and maybe even contained DIAMONDS? Needless so say, the town went bananas. Then came the first mined sample diamond and the news was sensational...

Diamonds cont'd...At a press conference the mining company revealed the news that this remarkable stone was a color never seen before in the history of diamond mining--a glistening white/Royal Lavender! Quickly it was dubbed the Royal Lavender Lorene. Gemologists around the world were stunned. This was BIG. Scientists theorized it was the caliche component that imparted this new color. It gave new meaning to the four "Cs". Meanwhile local people scoured the lease roads criss-crossing the Eunice area scrambling for anything that glittered in the bright sun. Pickup trucks pulled big farm rakes to turn over the caliche roads as the spouse drove along behind looking for those beautiful rocks. And where was the source of this unbelievable new wealth? Had you thrown your beer can on the heap at Holmes Caliche Pit? Really?