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Comment by defrost | Hacker News Reader

There are a lot of diamond mines, many in Canada, a number in Australia, there are a number that are mobile marine based ventures with state of the art ships sucking in sediments and sifting for diamonds.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/03/africa/marine-diamond-min...

None of your comments applies to any of the mines mentioned; Canada, Australia, and the marine operations all abide by OSHA regulations and pay good wages.

If you want to make a specific comment about conflict diamonds, for example, it pays to be aware that it's not just mining that sucks in war zones .. quality of life is pretty poor all around.

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If you think that just because a mine isn't in Africa that means it's a good place to work then I disagree

I work at one at the aforementioned diamond mines in Canada and it is in fact a good place to work. Cold as shit but safety is the number one concern.

Hey that's great to hear buddy

The marine mining ships I linked work in Africa, I've worked in several types of mines, I've had a career as an exploration geophysicist, and I worked on a resource intelligence mapping project that took me to mines across the globe.

There are mines I wouldn't work in, there are many mines I'd have no issue working in.

Which mines have you you worked in and what was your role?

The article you linked literally criticizes the Namibia mine for causing ecological damage to the marine ecosystem from repeated trawling. All that for superfluous rocks we can make synthetically.

Granted, maybe there are good mines out there, but I still think commercial extraction of resources is almost surely damaging to its surrounding environment. You can justify that for some useful material, but it's hard to justify it for diamonds.

Here at least we can agree, I view the bulk of diamond and gold mining as a waste of energy for "pretty things" to prop up a value growth mindset that is neccesary neither economically nor to advance quality of life.

Mining in general I view as a somewhat neccesary evil that needs to made humane for workers and as something driven by unthinking consumption, the remedy lies upstream from mines in the mindsets of populations that demand resources.

Resource extraction can't be eliminated but it can be reduced, as should population numbers.

Have you been to any diamond mine and compared the working conditions to something like a gold or iron ore mine?

Better than iron, similar to high grade non vein based gold mines. You mine it the same way as gold but your profit margins are better.

oh no my pretty rock came from somewhere where people had to work hard :(

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