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Williamson Diamond Mine
(Tanzania)
The Williamson Diamond Mine (also known as the Mwadui
mine) is a famous diamond mine in Tanzania. Williamson
Diamond Mine is an operating open pit mine in Tanzania.
It mainly produces diamond carats. In Raw Materials Data
you will find production data for diamond carats for 21
years, between 1984 and 2006. You will also find
production data for diamond value for 9 years, between
1998 and 2006. It is controlled/owned by Anglo American
plc and Ponahalo Investments Ltd. It was the first
significant diamond mine outside of South Africa. The
mine was established in 1940 by Dr. John Williamson, a
Canadian geologist, and has been continuous operation
since then, making it one of the oldest continuously
operating diamond mines in the world. Over its lifetime
it has produced over 19 million carats (3,800 kg) of
diamonds. The Williamson mine, once owned by its
namesake Dr. Williamson and later nationalized by the
government of Tanzania, is now majority owned by the
South African diamond giant De Beers (75 % ownership),
with the government of Tanzania owning the remaining 25
%.
The Location and Output Power of the Mine..
The mine is located about 160 kilometers (100 miles)
south of the town of Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania,
in the Shinyanga region. Dr. Williamson, the discoverer of the site,
first owner and namesake of the mine, named the site "Mwadui" after a
local chief. The most important geological feature of the Williamson
diamond mine is the kimberlite pipe on which it is located. At 1.46
square kilometers in area at surface level, it ranks as the largest
economically exploitable diamond-bearing volcanic pipe in the world. The
most precious stones produced at the Williamson mine include 54 carat
(10.8 g) flawless pink diamond (presented to then-Princess Elizabeth and
Prince Philip upon their wedding in 1947), and a 388 carat (77.6 g)
diamond found in 1990.
After Dr. Williamson? You Guessed it.......
Williamson succumbed to throat cancer in 1958, at
the time one of the wealthiest men in the world. Although he had amassed
a great fortune, Dr Williamson had become known as the "world's
loneliest bachelor". The heirs to his estate sold Williamson Diamond
Mine jointly to the Tanganyika government and De Beers, with each party
purchasing a 50% stake in the mine. The negotiations were conducted by
the late Harry Oppenheimer and were such a success that this same
formula was used for the partnerships that De Beers formed with the
governments of both Namibia and Botswana. In 1993/94 the Tanzanian
government, after having run the mine from 1973, asked De Beers to once
again take over the management of Williamson Diamond Mine. Today De
Beers hold 75 percent of the shares as well as the management contract,
while the Tanzanian government hold the balance. In its heyday, with
production at a peak, Williamson Diamond Mine accounted for 8 percent of
world production.
Read about all Famous Diamond Mines
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the Cape Colony, now a province in South Africa, radically
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its conception of them. As annual world diamond production
increased more than tenfold in the following 10 years, a
once extremely rare material became more accessible to
Western society with its growing wealth, science learned
that diamonds came from volcanoes, and everyone learned of
Cecil John Rhodes, Barney Barnato, Kimberley, and De Beers.
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The history of diamonds. Before the Medieval era Diamonds were worn
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Information Summary...
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Famous Diamond Mines - Williamson Mine
