To give everyone a little break from election coverage, check out this story.
It’s a Vancouver Sun story headlined “Mysterious diamond causes excitement in B.C.” And boy, are people excited.
You see, a clear 0.8mm diamond (yes, the Sun decides that diamonds are now measured in millimetres, not carats) was found in a rock sample from Northern B.C. This is pretty exciting stuff because formerly all of Canada’s diamonds (14 per cent of world supply, currently) are in the northern territories.
But now, with diamonds in northern B.C. the economy is going to go through the roof! People will all flock to the province to mine the little jewels that are so obviously trapped in the…what’s that Vancouver Sun? You SEVENTH paragraph has just informed me that the diamond from the rock sample is actually more likely from screen used to process a previous sample? Huh?
That’s right:
The report authors, a team of provincial, federal and
University of B.C. researchers, speculate that the small, colourless stone may
have been lodged in a rock screen during processing of a previous sample —
including samples belonging to a previous client of the processing lab.
The story does continue, with more muted excitement, that at least some of the other samples had “indicator minerals,” usually present when diamonds are around. But, er, diamonds? Not so much.
Oh, and as far as my headline for this post goes, we are all going to remain poor. Just thought you should know.