High Life Living Luxury: February 2015

Thursday 26 February 2015

The Ghaghoo Diamond Mine, Botswana

The Ghaghoo diamond mine was officially opened in 2014 by the president of Botswana. It is held by Gem Diamonds Botswana, which holds a 25-year mining licence.

'Ghaghoo' is the name of a locally abundant camel thorn acacia tree, and is the name historically used by locals to refer to the area, before geological exploration teams arrived over thirty years ago, renaming the area 'Gope' - literally translated meaning 'nowhere'.

The Ghaghoo mine is situated in the south-east portion of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The mine is expected to reach its designed throughput of 720 000 tons per year in 2015.

Total resources are estimated at 20.53 million carats with an in-situ value of US$ 4.9 billion.

One of the most difficult tasks to overcome was mining through approximately 80 vertical meters of sand overburden before reaching the competent country rock.

Botswana’s government has always denied that diamonds were the reason for the evictions of the Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve between 1997 and 2005 – one of its claims was to protect the wildlife.

Lord Jones said in 2004, “Survival International continue to allege that the Bushmen have been forced off their lands because of diamonds."

The Kalahari Bushmen have lived sustainably alongside the reserve’s wildlife for generations but continue to face persecution in the name of conservation. Bushmen caught hunting to feed their families are arrested, beaten and tortured.

Thursday 19 February 2015

Strange and Unusual Places

Tufa pinnacles at Mono Lake in Sierra Nevada - Mono Lake is a closed hydrological basin - water flows into it but it doesn't flow out. The only way for water to leave is through evaporation. Four vertical feet of water can evaporate during the course of a year.

Lake Baikal in Siberia freezes over but the water is so clear that you can see an astounding 130 feet below you. Wind, temperature differences, frost and sun in the ice crust cause cracks and ice hummocks to form.

A lightning bolt crashed against the Grand Canyon illuminating the steep canyon walls. The bright blue bolt illuminated the South Rim of the canyon, considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

The Door to Hell is a natural gas field in Derweze, Ahal Province, Turkmenistan. The Door to Hell is noted for its natural gas fire which has been burning continuously since it was lit by Soviet petroleum engineers in 1971.

The elephant rock formation in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada - A strange natural sandstone rock formation resembling an elephant.

Don Juan Pond is a small and very shallow hypersaline lake in the west end of Wright Valley, Antarctica. With a salinity level of over 40%, Don Juan Pond is the saltiest known body of water on Earth

The Great Blue Hole in Belize - A large submarine sinkhole which is over 984 feet across and 407 feet deep. The sinkhole was formed during several episodes of quaternary glaciation when sea levels were much lower.

The Dune of Pilat is the tallest sand dune in Europe. It is located in La Teste-de-Buch in France, 60 km from Bordeaux.

The Wave in Utah - Carved rock eroded into a wave-like formation made of jurassic-age Navajo sandstone that is approximately 190 million years old.

Aogashima is south of Tokyo in the Philippine Sea. The island is known for having a volcanic caldera within a larger caldera.

The sliding stones of Death Valley, California - The movement of the rocks continue to baffle experts, with some rocks sliding across a flat bed despite weighing up to 700 pounds each.

Urup is an uninhabited volcanic island near in the south of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean

The Beauty Pool of Yellowstone National Park - The hot spring allows luminous algae and bacteria to flourish creating a vivid array of colors

Fraser Island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km².

The Moeraki Boulders of New Zealand - The gigantic boulders started forming on the ocean floor and can now be seen sitting on the coastline thanks to erosion.

The Eye of Africa - official name the Richat Structure was spotted in central Mauritania by astronauts on early space missions. In the expanse of the Western Sahara Desert, the formation has a diameter of about 30 miles.

Sunday 15 February 2015

Piaget High Jewellry

Piaget is a Swiss luxury watchmaker and jeweller, founded in 1874 by Georges Piaget in the village of La Côte-aux-Fées. The company belongs to the Swiss Richemont group, specialists in the luxury goods industry.

The company was founded as a manufacturer of watch movements but began marketing its own line of watches in the 20th century.

After a decade and a half at the helm of Piaget, Philippe Léopold-Metzger is ramping up the production of jewelery, increasing the company’s focus on an important battleground for the industry.