The Chamber of Mines of Peru arranged this guided tour of the South African mine for the benefit of its graduates.
The three graduates of the Master’s Degree program of The Chamber of Mines of Peru who participated in Joburg Indaba 2018, Christian Díaz (Peru), Mariela Ledesma (Argentina) and Claudio Barria (Chile), visited the Cullinan diamond mine in South Africa.
This mine is located 40 kilometers east of Pretoria, in a small town called Cullinan. In 1905, the world’s largest diamond of 3106 carats was discovered here.
The tour included an introduction to diamonds and mining, and a display of rough diamonds at the Diamond House, as well as a visit to the famous “Big Hole”, an old open pit mine that is still in operation.
In addition to the Cullinan diamond mine, the graduates visited a jewelry store where they could see the process of cutting and polishing the stones. Also, Christian Díaz, Mariela Ledesma and Claudio Barria descended 700 meters into a mine in operation.
“I would like to thank The Chamber of Mines of Peru for making this trip a reality and planting the seed of curiosity in each of us,” commented Claudio Barria.
Mariela Ledesma said: “The trip has been a professional and, above all, personal growth for us. You learn a lot when you have the opportunity to get to know other cultures.”
Likewise, Christian Díaz expressed his gratitude to The Chamber of Mines of Peru for the opportunity of this trip. “This visit to the Cullinan mine has allowed us to learn more about one of the most important diamond mines in the world. It has been very rewarding.”
We would like to highlight that our graduates Christian Díaz, Mariela Ledesma, and Claudio Barria work at Buenaventura, Barrick and Codelco mining companies, respectively.
During Joburg Indaba 2018, carefully designed themes were developed for this year. For example, from the importance of zero-accident policies in operations to the irruption of artificial intelligence technologies in mining. In other words, topics that are currently being discussed at the highest management levels in the industry.
In this way, the knowledge acquired at the event and during the visit to the Cullinan diamond mine will enable our graduates to increase their skills in their work.
