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Kimberley Diamond Mine
(South Africa)
In 1866, Erasmus
Jacobs found a small white pebble on the banks of the
Orange River, on the farm De Kalk leased from local
Griquas, near Hopetown. The pebble turned out to be a
21.25 carat (4.25 g) diamond. In 1871, an even larger
83.50 carat (16.7 g) diamond was found on the slopes of
Colesberg Kopje by Esau Damoense, the cook for
prospector Fleetwood Rawstone's "Red Cap Party," who was
sent to dig on the hill as a punishment for being drunk.
This find led to the first diamond rush into the area.
As miners arrived in their thousands, the hill
disappeared, and became known as the Big Hole. A town,
New Rush, was formed in the area, the town was named as
Kimberly in the honor of the British Colonial Secretary
John F. Kimberly who could not pronounce the name of the
farm - Vooruizicht! In 1874, Cecil B. Rhodes, an Oxford
student was sent by his father to join his brother in
South Africa for a healthier climate. After trying his
luck at faming unsuccessfully, he made winnings at dry
digging and became financially independent at the age of
19. He bought more and more claims in the De Beers mine
and finally amalgamated the De Beers Mining Company and
Kimberly Central into De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd.
It was incorporated on March 12, 1888 in the province of
Good Hope and it is now based in Kimberly, South Africa.
"All for the
vanity of woman!"
Randolph Churchill, father of
Winston Churchill said this when he peered down into the vastness of the
big hole of Kimberly (the largest diamond mine in South Africa) and
contemplated what it represented in human terms. To which one woman in
the party added -
"..and the
depravity of man"
Kimberley is a town in South Africa, and the capital of
the Northern Cape.
The story of the Kimberley mines began with the
discovery of a small pebble on orange river by Erasmus Jacobs in 1866,
which turned out to be a 21.25 carat diamond. Later in 1871, another
83.5 carat diamond was found on the slopes of Colesberg Kopje. This lead
to a diamond rush in the area and the kopje (hill) disappeared due to
thousands of miners digging for diamonds and came to be known as the Big
Hole. A town named New Rush was formed in that area and was renamed as
Kimberley after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies at the
time, John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley. The British tried to annex
the area of the diamond mine and succeeded. The area became the British
colony of Griqualand West.
Kimberley became the largest city in the area in a
quick span of time, mostly due to a massive African
migration to the area from all over the continent.
The immigrants were accepted with open arms, because
the De Beers company required cheap labor to run the
mines. The largest company to operate a diamond mine
in South Africa was the De Beers Company, owned by
Cecil Rhodes.
South Africa's first school of mines was opened here
in 1896 and later relocated to Johannesburg,
becoming the core of the University of the
Witwatersrand. In fact the first two years were
attended at colleges elsewhere in Capetown,
Grahamstown or Stellenbosch, the third year in
Kimberley and the fourth year in Johannesburg.
Buildings were constructed against a total cost of
9000 pounds with De Beers contributing on a pound
for pound basis.
On 14 October 1899, Kimberley was besieged at the
beginning of the Second Boer War. The British forces
trying to relieve the siege suffered heavy losses.
The siege was only lifted on 15 February 1900, but
the war continued until May 1902. By that time, the
British had built a concentration camp at Kimberley
to house Boer women and children. In 1913, South
Africa's first flying school opened there and
started training the pilots of the South African
Aviation Corps, later the South African Air Force.
It also housed South Africa's first stock exchange.
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Information Summary...
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The Famous Kimberly Diamond Mine
