[evan_au]

are diamond miners expendable ?

I have visited the Diamond Museum in Antwerp (Belgium), where they show a lot of the history of diamond mining.
Unfortunately, during much of that time, it seems that the native population has been considered a consumable. []

[alancalverd]

What is the effect on the diamond miners of all these X Rays ?, are they expendable ?

See reply # 15 above. The unit I work with runs at about one twentieth of the dose of some of the competition.

[chris]

At high x-ray energy, most biological materials have pretty much the same mass absorption coefficient. Diamond, however, has about 3.2 times the density of human soft tissue - almost the same as bone - so shows up quite well in a 250-kV x-ray of a human body. It also helps to know where to look.

Where's the preferred site then?

[alancalverd]

Topologically, the human being is a torus, so whether you swallow the contraband or shove it up your backside makes very little difference to the maths, and not a lot to the radiological physics. In a single anterio-posterior projection we might have some difficulty distinguishing a diamond lodged in the pelvic region but it would show up in the lateral projection.

Your best bet is "hiding in plain sight". Empty the lead shot from a cartridge, refill with Gauge 1 rock ballast, shoot yourself in the belly, try not to bleed to death, and wait for the scars to heal over the pebbles.  Or acquire some hepatic granulomas (toxoplasmosis works well, but takes even longer than shrapnel). Chances are that a small diamond would look like stone shrapnel or a focal calcification of the liver, to the untrained eye*. Now filter your poo for a day or so, and who knows, you might have a couple of dollars' worth of industrial cutting diamonds!

However given that the best kimberlite yields aound 0.5 parts per million of diamond, you will have  to swallow an awful lot of Africa to be certain of bringing  home anything worthwhile.

*we include a training package and some basic radiological anatomy with the kit

[JimBob]

Chris,

You don't have that much money!

[William McC]

Why bother? It is not a prohibited substance.

Can you mold them into man made plasticized stone and call them drink coasters?

Sincerely,

William McCormick