Discover the diamond mine in Kimberley

Located in the heart of Kimberley city (South Africa) is Big Hole - the deepest artificial earth pit in the world. Many diamonds found in Kimberley and Big Hole are the largest diamond mine with a depth of 215m.

>>>Discover the world's second largest giant diamond mine

The diamonds found at Kimberly are formed in vertical volcanic circuits. Volcanic circuits are located just below the farm of two immigrants from the Netherlands. They were the de Beers brothers: Johannes Nicolaas and Diederik Arnoldus. Two people bought this land to farm, not to dig diamonds. However, in 1871, diamonds were found in this area. Nobody knows where they originated from where they were discovered or drifted from another region due to erosion.

There is a low hill on the farm called Colesberg Kopje. The Red Hat team led by Fleetwood Rawstorne conducted an exploration of the area in 1871. And it was the chef of the Esau Damoens mining group who found the first diamond. This discovery made him a worldwide diamond fever. From America, England, France, Russia, people all went to Colesberg Kopje to find treasure. The de Beers could not prevent diamond hunters from banning signs so they finally decided to sell the land.

And although not becoming the owner of huge diamond mines, one of these mines and the diamond industry have their names. It was De Beers diamond mine and De Beers Ltd. founded by Cecil John Rhodes and Charles Rudd in 1888. Today De Beers has become the dominant market company, providing 40% of the world's diamonds and own more than 70% of diamond mines in South Africa.

The diamonds were first mined in an open pit, along the volcanic circuit. Then Colesberg Hill Kopje disappeared and became a deep hole. The result is Big Hole excavation (Kimberley mine) like today. From 1866 to 1914, about 3 tons of diamonds were exploited at this mine. It is the result of the labor of 50,000 hardworking workers, unloading 22.5 million tons of land with rudimentary tools such as hoes and shovels.

The surface operation of the mine ended in 1914 and ended underground mining operations in 1995. In 2007, the first owner of the Kimberley mine sold the underground mining rights to Petra. In 2010, Petra produced about 100,000 carats of diamonds from this mine. De Beer also re-signed nearly 5.5 tons of open surface rocks and obtained 823,000 carats.

Big Hole is 215m deep but the water level is only 40m high. The world's deepest digging hole is 240m deep, but after it was closed, it was used to throw lime bricks down.

In 2006, De Beers invested $ 7.7 million to build a museum of Kimberley mines around the Big Hole area including an open museum and a small village to recreate the history of diamond mining in Kimberley. .

In the past, Big Hole was once considered the largest artificial pit in the world, but now, this record has been broken by a copper mine in Utah (USA). This mine is 774m deep, spread over 7.2 km ² . However, it is dug with modern machines, not by hoes or shovels like Big Hole.