THE KIMBERLEY DIAMOND INDUSTRY.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume XII, Issue 46, 14 April 1910, Page 2

THE KIMBERLEY DIAMOND INDUSTRY.

Diamond-mining is practically the only industry in and about Kimberley, the country around being most unattractive and unproductive. Tha soil is good, but owing /to the scarcity of rain it is useless for either tillage or grazing. Vegetables are brought from Natal, where there is more rain, and manufactured goods are all imported, and are heavily laden with duty, It will thus be seen that everything depends on the diamonds. . Should they ever fail, Kimberley will bo added to the* list of lost cities; but experts say, that the supply of the precious stones is inex-! haustible. So far, at any rate, this appears to be the case, for the Do, Beers Company on an aversfe esqpoet { over, two million pounds* Wflffttt a year. The diggings are two Mato j —the wet and. the dry. Sftfl the jtvw.j diggings the diamonds sm iom&A ®»! mong the pebbles along the' bffio&j The soil is dug up and canted far; buckets to the river, and tip®®® uwak-J ed in a “cradle"—a box Etf atom; pierced with holes, whMa fla Mtotf; to and fro under a stream of watawl When all the earth is washsd, i£s#| boxes are examined, and in a 'Mt claim" about one diamond will be' found in every ten bucketfuls of earth. But the “dry dfgginge" are the most important, sfid are several hundred feet deep. They were formerly known as the Du Toits Pan, Bulfontein, De Beers, and Kimberley Central. They are now amalgamated into ono huge company,known as the De Beers Consolidated Company, with a share cap-* ital of many million po|nds sterling'.