Mthold, Andreas Sorcery and Adolph Thomson reported that the king received $120000 from the mine operators and stones larger than 10 carats were given to the king. According to Tavernier, between 1632 and 1662 AD, Ramallakota and Kollur were the mining centers, the latter being the most productive in 1645. The quality of the stones was so good and the size so large that the east India Company even considered sending remittances to England in the form of diamonds. The Golapalli and Malavalli mines were most productive in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but by the nineteenth century production had declined. Though mining operations in Panna in Madhya Pradesh was interrupted for some time, in continues to this day.
The Wairagarh mines of Madhya Pradesh become uneconomical in 1829 and were abandoned in 1840 AD. In the seventeenth century, some diamonds were extracted in Bihar and Orissa, though production increased in the eighteenth century; but by the middle of the nineteenth century there was a decline in mining activity here too. In these regions the mining operations were primitive and consisted mainly of sporadic searches in shallow excavations.
The excavated material was soaked in water for a couple of days, sun dried and powdered in wooden pestles and mortars. The resultant grit was then scanned for gemstones.
Geologists have observed pipe rocks in Wajrakarur, once a flourishing mining area fourteen kilometers south of Guntakal as well as in Panna in Madhya
Pradesh, but they have not located the actual neck of the pipe. Close studies of the geological formations of central India indicate clearly the presence of diamonds in three distinct regions of India. The first is close to the rocks of the Kurnool series in Andhra Pradesh and the Vindhyas in the north. In Ananthapur, Bellary, Cuddapah, Kurnool, Krishna and Godavari districs of Andhra Pradesh, the rocks have weathered and farmers have chanced on diamonds when plugging their fields. The source of these alluvial stones has yet not been traced. The second source of alluvial diamonds extends westwards from the Mahanadi valley in the Sambalpur district of Orissa into Madhya Pradesh, with an extension to the north. Diamonds have
also been discovered in an outcrop of conglomerate that extends over an area of one hundred kilometers by 20km in Panna, Charkari, Bijwar, Ajaigarh, Kothi, Pathar Kacchar, Baraunda and Chobapur.
Geologists have reported that diamonds have been found in various locations in India listed below.
Ananthapur District: Diamonds have been extracted from the crystalline rocks near Bodasanipalle, Ganjikuta, Konganapalle, Lattawaram, Mulakalapenta, Pedda Hoturu and in Wajrakarur in the past. About a century ago, a volcanic neck very similar to the diamond bearing matrix of Kimberley in South Africa was discovered. Miners of that time crushed the ore and washed it on small platforms. In 1885, a small mining company tried unsuccessfully to mine the area but it was only in 1941 that the new Wajrakarur Diamond Company Ltd
found two large stones of around 1.8 carats each. Even today diamonds are occasionally found on the surface east of Wajrakarur after a rain storm, though never close to the neck of the pipe rock. Valuable stones are still found occasionally between Guntakal and Gooty in the village of Kanganapalle. In 1935, a cultivator reportedly picked up a diamond weighing about 36 carats and a few months earlier, a diamond weighing 67.4 carats was found and cut to an exceptionally brilliant stone of 24.6 carats.
Bellary District: While there was evidence of lining near the village of Huvinahadagalli, there are no record of actual finds if large stones.
Cuddapah District: There were attempts to mine the alluvium near hennur. It is reputed that large stones were found there but systematic and organized mining proved unprofitable. The stones were obtained from a gravel bed lying about two meters below the surface but the mines were soon abandoned.
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