The Miner's Mindset

Dear lovely people,

A miner is a person who extracts minerals such as diamond from the earth through a process known as mining. The working conditions in mines can be unusual and sometimes dangerous such that miners are often subjected to rugged outdoor work in all kinds of weather and climates yet they don’t give up on the search for treasures such as Diamonds, Peals and Gold.

Natural Diamonds are formed when extreme heat (temperatures of 2200 degrees Fahrenheit) and extreme pressure cause carbon atoms to crystallize forming diamonds approximately 145 Km under the earth's surface. Mining diamonds therefor means that miners have to subject themselves to the huddles of digging down through rocks to depths of about ninety miles into the earth. Diamonds reach the surface of the earth sometimes via alluvial deposits washed away by rivers over hundreds of years and deposited as sediments in the river sands. So you could equally get diamond grains by sifting through millions of tons of sand at a beach. Even at the Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park in the US which is the only diamond-producing site in the world where the public can freely search for and keep diamonds, you have to search atop a 37.5 acre plowed field of an ancient, gem-bearing volcanic crater.

Mining Gold is not much different, Karen Black affirms that “there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” Miners equally brave untold difficulties to dig down through rocks at depths of 3,400 m below the earth’s solid surface in search for gold as the case of the gold mines of South Africa.

When it comes to Peals, John Dryden says “he who would search for pearls must dive below.” Before the 20th century, the only means of obtaining pearls was by manually gathering very large quantities of pearl oysters or mussels from the ocean floor. More than a ton of bivalves were brought to the surface and their tissues searched in order to find about 3-4 quality pearls. In order to find enough pearl oysters, free-divers were often forced to descend to depths of over 161 Km on a single breath, exposing them to the dangers of hostile creatures, waves, eye damage, and drowning.

The miner before starting off to work knows that trouble awaits them, they know they will have to put their bones and brains together, take unbelievable risks and be subjected to all sorts of challenges to get what they want. They don’t give up even when the future seems bleak, they know they will get to the treasure at one point in time.

This is the mindset of the person who eagerly wants to succeed in life; you have your dreams crafted out, and so you set out to make them become true. You know there are going to be all sorts of difficulties, you know there are certainly going to be moments down the dark tunnel when you will feel like giving up but just like the miner, you equally know that sooner or later, your searchlight will flash on the luster of the treasure you seek and even though you know like Honore de Balzac that In “diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls,” you just have to keep on.