History Of Diamond Mines In South Africa
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Diamonds were first discovered in Cape Colony in the year 1867. The place is now a province in South Africa. This discovery not only modified the diamond supply in the world, but also the conception about the diamonds.
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In the next ten years of the discovery the diamond, production in the world had increased tenfold. This made available the rarest stone available in the markets of the western society with the increasing wealth. Also, scientists had come to know that the diamonds were the results of volcanoes and everyone came to know about the Barney Barnato, Kimberley, De Beers and Cecil John Rhodes. South Africa is the main producer of diamonds today.
The South African history of diamonds started in the 1866 mid December and February 1867. This happened as Erasmus Jacobs, a 15 year old, discovered a transparent stone in their farm which is located on the south bank of Orange River. In the next fifteen years, the South Africa had produced diamonds more than India produced in 2,000 years.
As the production of diamonds increased in South Africa, the production in Brazil depleted; and as the United States prospered in wealth, the demand for the diamond and the prices did not decrease as it happened in case of Brazil when the diamonds were produced more than demanded in the 1730s.
In latter half of the 19th century, mainly in the 1870s and 1880s, Kimberly, which had 95 percent of the world diamond production, attracted wealth and rivalries like Barnato and Rhodes, who combined the 31 foot square prospects and made them into large mining companies. It was Rhodes who came out the winner and ended up forming the De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.
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