Kimberley

Amongst the numerous South African cities, Kimberley is undoubtedly a "gem" that has dazzled the world with its brilliance and prosperity in the past.  
The unearthing of vast amount of diamonds drew an incredible influx of diamond profiteers. In its heyday and peak of prosperity, Kimberley was without a question the "hottest" place to be across the entire African continent. However, with the depletion of diamond deposits and the rush of gold mining at Johannesburg, diamond mining businesses and merchants wasted no time in moving their business ventures to Johannesburg. Consequently, the once bustling city of Kimberley became a lifeless town set on a path towards obscurity; the once fully occupied Victorian styled buildings and crowded Lutheran churches became the homes for the birds. Even bustling Jan Smuts Street couldn't persuade residents and visitors to stay. And just like that, the town of Kimberley fell as silent as the neighboring Kalahari Desert; the only sound one would hear would be the howling of the wind. 

Today, Kimberley no longer produces diamonds; one will not find miners, gamblers or "ladies attired in questionable fashion" loitering the streets as they once did. However, the town's prosperity in the 19th century has been recreated in its full glory at the Kimberley Mine Museum. The Kimberley Mine Museum used to be a diamond mine in the past; it not only witnessed the history of De Beers' growth as a multibillion company but also played a part in the history of Kimberley's development, which is equivalent to the history of diamond mining in South Africa.

 

  The first diamond from South Africa was found in 1866 by a boy who noticed a brilliant pebble on the banks of Orange River. The boy took the pebble home and his father recognized the stone to be a 21? carat diamond. The diamond was later known as "Eureka". Two years later, a Griqua shepherd boy found another diamond that was finer than "Eureka" at the same location. Schalk van Niekerk gave the young native five hundred sheep, ten oxen and a horse in exchange for the diamond. 
Niekerk later sold the rough crystal for $56,000. After going through several transfers of ownership, the diamond made its first auction appearance in Geneva in 1974. The diamond was sold to an unknown bidder at a price of US$ 552,000. The diamond is no other than the "The Star of South Africa" (83.50 carats). 

As news of diamond discovery spread, aspiring miners who dreamed of making a fortune rushed to the town. The arrival of these miners turned the barren area into a crude marketplace. The town of New Rush was then renamed to "Kimberley", after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time, John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley. Most of the early miners at Kimberley were successful in their mining operations because most of the diamond deposit was poorly hidden by the yellow colored clay. The diamond deposit in the surface layer was soon depleted and the miners dug deeper to the diamond bearing blue ground. The mining operations went deeper and deeper and ultimately the complexity of large scaled mining operations proved to be impossible for ordinary miners. This led to the birth of the mining corporations. 

Two British men were instrumental to the formation of large mining companies: one being Cecil John Rhodes (who had been acknowledged for his contributions to the development of Africa's southern areas) and the other Barney Barnato (former comedian and conjurer). Both men were renowned for being the most successful entrepreneurs during the diamond rush in the 19th century. Rhodes was born to a reverend's family in 1853, and he had suffered from poor health at an early age. When he was sixteen, he developed asthma and his physician advised him to leave England due to the
foggy and humid climate.
 

 
 
And hence, Rhodes was to help out his brother Herbert, who was running a cotton farm in Natal. During the gold and diamond rush, Rhodes promptly gave up the low-profit cotton cultivation business and left the colony for the diamond fields of Kimberley. When he arrived, the surface diamond deposit was almost depleted due to extensive mining. Consequently, many mining firms contemplated leaving the place to seek fortune elsewhere. Rhodes jumped at the opportunity to buy out their mining claims and his procurement effort entitled him to the digging rights at most mines. In 1883, Rhodes became the chairman of De Beers Mining Company. At the time, the only company in Kimberley that was capable of competing with De Beers in the diamond mining industry was Barnato Diamond Mining Company, owned by Barney Barnato. 

Barnato started out as a stage performer in England. When he arrived in Cape Town in 1873, Barnato was so poor that he could only afford to pay five pounds for a cart to carry his luggage while he walked beside it. At night, he would sleep under the cart. After two months of journey on foot, he would finally arrive at Kimberley. His only capital on arrival at the diamond fields consisted of a box of cigars (of doubtful quality) that he hoped to sell to the diggers. As it turned out, Barnato did not have much luck in the venture and became an itinerant buyer of diamonds. He made a profit by selling the diamonds he bought to retailers and invested the benefits on securing mining claims. Within a few years' time, Barnato was able to establish his own company - the Barnato Diamond Mining Company. Barnato's company became the only one in the industry that could stand up to Rhode's De Beers, and after fierce competition, Rhodes out-muscled Barnato and acquired his company in 1888. The two companies merged to become De Beers Consolidated Mines. With the effort of Rhodes and Barnatos along with the outstanding corporate management by Ernest Oppenheimer, De Beers has thrived on sound underpinnings that enabled it to monopolize the world's diamond industry. The Kimberley Mine Museum is the epitome of De Beers' rise toward success. The site where the diamond deposit was found was known as Colesberg in 1871. The discovery of diamond in the area drew diggers from all around the world as countless caravans, merchants and miners set up camps in the proximity. Early comers to the place were entitled to a small piece of land to mind, and all diggers dug downward in their given perimeter. As the diamond deposit in the surface layer ran out, the many intertwining paths in the area were gradually replaced by numerous rope ladders that hung by the hills.

There were five diamond mines at Kimberley at the time, with claims entitled to thousands of miners in the area. However, as the mine tunnels went deeper underground, miners who dug manually were unable to go further down on their own. Rhodes and Barnatos exploited this opportunity to secure their mining claims. They went a step further to introduce tunnel-boring machines to continue mining operation in the blue ground.
The Big Hole near the museum is the most renowned historic site in Kimberley. When viewed from the air, the hole would look like the
 
aftermath of a meteor that struck the earth. The Big Hole is in fact manually dug by miners with picks and shovel and it is the second largest hand-dug hole in the world. The Big Hole has a circumference of 4572 meters with a diameter reaching 1600 meters to occupy an area of 17 hectares. In the span of 43 years of nonstop digging, 25 million tons of blue earth was excavated to yield a total of 1.45 million carats of diamonds.

The museum is comprised of 48 old buildings, which once made up the prosperous street in Kimberley. They used to be lavishly furnished stores and business venues such as gold accessory shop, pubs, boutique stores and so forth that catered to miners who struck it rich. The museum also features a display room that was renovated from a vault. The De Beers Hall houses a display of uncut diamonds, stones of different colors and items of jewelry. Also on display are the "616" (616 carats), the largest uncut diamond in the world along with several diamonds that are over 100 carats in size. The brilliance of these precious stones make a stark contrast to the town of Kimberley in its decline. 

Links:South African Tourism | Rovos Rail | Sun City Hotel | Blue Train
Contact Us 2012 Rock Sun Travel.All Rights Reserved.