Money Matters: Diamonds in Kimberley

By Carrie Lofty

In writing my upcoming release FLAWLESS, a Victorian-era romance set in colonial South Africa, I became fascinated by the speed of change in the Kimberley diamond mines. This massive change made a select few individuals unbelievably wealthy, while forever changing the politics, culture and future of South Africa. All for a few little rocks...

In 1866, while playing on his father's farm on the banks of the Orange River, young colonist Erasmus Jacobs found a 21.25 carat diamond that eventually went on to be called the Eureka Diamond. Three years later, another colonist found a 47.69 carat beauty, now called the Star of South Africa (right), which promptly sold and resold in Europe for upwards of £25,000 (roughly $2.8 million in today's money).

Thus began the great South African diamond rush. A mere twenty-two years later, Cecil Rhodes (pictured) bought out Barney Bernato and formed the De Beers diamond monopoly. During those years Great Britain went to war in the Cape, annexed territory, and did all they could to secure the land around Kimberley, where miners hoped to strike it rich. In 1882 Kimberley became the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to have electrical street lighting, and it was said that the small, otherwise innocuous frontier town boasted the highest population of billionaires in the world.

However, as with most rushes, the wealth was neither consistent nor equitably distributed amongst those who participated.

Kimberley's Big Hole, a kimberlite pipe stuffed full of diamonds, was still mostly dirt and worthless rock. For every ton of rock excavated, only .22 to .5 carats were discovered. This massive undertaking required roughly 9,000 miners in the Hole on any given day, with a worker replacement rate of 30% annually.

Paying their miners became owners' single most draining expense, and unions were a hotbed of controversy up until the moment of Rhodes' monopolistic triumph. Miners earned roughly £26/year (£13,900 in earnings today), but food and supply costs out on the isolated Karoo, where trains didn't arrive until the mid-1880s, were extortionary. Tradesmen experienced in geology and diamond assessment could earn upwards of a pound a day, which drew adventurous men by the thousands.

The difficulty with this rush also had to do with boom and bust cycles. Brilliants, or gemstone quality diamonds, suffered from massive pricing swings. The Kimberley mines in 1880 produced a total of 3,090,000 carats of diamonds that sold at an average of £1 7s each, for a total of £4,171,500 in gross revenue. In 1881, production increased but the average price per carat dropped to only a pound, for a year's decline of £796,000.

These busts drove out smaller miners. Men and eventually corporations consolidated bankrupt plots into larger and larger mines. By 1879 the number of registered claimants was down from several hundred to just 130. Ten years later only De Beers remained, which halted the boom and bust cycle. The De Beers monopoly meant suppliers could no longer charge such overinflated prices for their goods. Those remaining retailers had to bow to the wishes of the company, as did every employee. Prices stabilized dramatically, but the era of an ordinary miner striking it rich was over.

Carrie Lofty's latest historical romances, SCOUNDREL'S KISS and SONG OF SEDUCTION, are available now. In 2011 watch for Carrie's new Victorian series from Pocket, as well as her "Dark Age Dawning" romance trilogy from Berkley, co-written with Ann Aguirre under the name Ellen Connor. "Historical romance needs more risk-takers like Lofty." ~ Wendy the Super Librarian

Humans in Nature: The Big Hole

By Carrie Lofty

Until 2005, when scholars proved that the abandoned Jagersfontein mine was actually about 110 feet deeper, the Big Hole in Kimberely, South Africa was the largest pit ever dug by hand. The open-pit mine, established in 1871, attracted as many as 50,000 small time miners from all over the world until conglomerates founded by men such as Cecil Rhodes began to buy up shares and consolidate claims. By the time it closed in 1914, the Big Hole had yielded three tons of raw diamonds (2,720 kilos), and every single one of those diamonds was extracted using pick-axes, shovels and bare hands.

As with any discovery of rich natural resources, international players wanted a piece of the action. Major contenders for the African colonial land grab, including Britain, Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands, became obsessed with what some called "the Diamond Crusade." Using a loophole in an existing treaty with the Griqua tribe, the British were able to repartition boundaries between Cape Colony and the Orange Free State in a move that made Kimberely's diamond-rich land property of the Queen. But the diamonds belonged to those who could best get at them.


As the hole got wider and deeper, miners were at risk of side collapses due to poor scaffolding or rain storms. No longer able to simply stroll to their claim and start digging, the miners and their supplies were lowered into the pit by a series of pulleys and cables. The deeper they got, the more costly to continue mining, which precipitated the push toward consolidation and mechanization.

Cecil Rhodes envisioned an African continent made British, with its populace taught to appreciate British values and customs. He also imagined a railroad that would stretch from Cape Town to Cairo, and his obsession needed funds. He eventually consolidated so many mining claims that he was able to buy out his chief rival, Barney Bernato, for more than five million pounds--the largest sum ever paid by check at that time. This created the De Beers monopoly which still hold tremendous sway over the diamond industry today.


By the time the mine closed in 1914, it had grown to 1500 feet wide (460 meters) and almost 500 feet deep. Upon seeing the mine for the first time, Winston Churchill said, "All for the vanity of women!" To which a woman in the crowd replied, "And the depravity of men!"

Water and debris now partially fill the mine, which has become known throughout the world by its designation as a World Heritage Site. You can read more about the tourist town that has since sprung up around the Big Hole on its website.