DE BEERS MINE CLOSED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15687, 14 August 1914, Page 7

DE BEERS MINE CLOSED.

London, August 12. The Do Beers mine has been closed down-

The value of the annual output of diamonds from tho Do Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., averages about £4,500,000. In 1870 diamonds were discovered on the farms of Du Toits Pan and Bultfontein, now the site of Kimborley. In 1871 richer diamonds were found on the neighbouring farm of Vooruitzight, at places named Do Beers and Colesberg Kopje. There were at first three distinct mining camps, one at Du Toits Pan; another at De Beers, called Do Beers rush, or Old De Boers; and tho third at the Colesberg Kopje, called De Beers New Rush, or New Rush simply. Tho Colesberg Kopje mine was in July, 1873, renamed Kimberley, in honour of tho then Secretary of State for the Colonies, the first Earl of Kimberley, by whose direction tho mines were, in 1871, taken under tho protection of Great Britain. Among those early attracted .to Kimberley were Cecil Rhodes and " Barney " Barnato, who in time cam© to represent two groups of financiers controlling the mines; The amalgamation of their interests in 1889, when the Do Beers group purchased the Kimberley mine for £5,338,650, put tho whole diamond production of the Kimberley fields in the hands of one company, tho Do Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd.