The history of the Kimberley diamond fields
The first diamond of South Africa was found in 1866 in the Northern Province, along the banks of the Orange River. After the discovery of the diamond, an extensive diamond rush occurred, and thousands of reliable prospectors flooded the area in search of alluvial diamonds along the banks of the river, as well as the banks of the nearby Waal River.
Over the course of several years, several large diamonds were discovered, among which one is located on a farm called Jagersfontein, which later became the famous diamond mine. After a series of discoveries, the area became known as Beaconsfield, which today is a suburb of Kimberley. A year after the discovery of the Jagersfontein diamond, the Kimberley and De Beers pipes were discovered near Bultfontein, and similar discoveries were made in bodies such as Benaauwheidsfontein, Dorstfontein and Vooruitzicht. The fifth was found 20 years later, known as the Wesselton Tube.
While pipes were initially processed by people, as the digging depth increased, a more efficient solution was needed. In 1888, De Beers Consolidated Mines, owned by Cecil John Rhodes, were created, a combination of the Kimberley and De Beers mines.
In 1897, the rights to dig Kimberley mines were acquired by a new company - Kimberley Mining Limited (KML). They were mined before 1914, using a method known as a career career. This lasted until the First World War in 1914. After the end of the war in 1918, the mine was simply maintained for the next 8 years. At that time, the De Beers Consolidated charge, but with the exception of a few samples of mine contents, sometime in the 1950s and again in the 1980s, the mine remained inactive. In 2002, the New Diamond Corporation (NDC) took control, but without funding, landfills and mines became available. Today, the Mineo investment consortium, which is part of new African mining companies, has rights to both the caravan park bushes and the Campesdam dumps of the Kimberley mines.
Kimberley City
Kimberley itself was founded in 1871 after diamond discoveries, and the growth of the city was great as a result of various mines built around. The city is named after kimberlite rocks - geological volcanic rocks that are found in vertical pipes and that contain diamonds. Over time, the formations are destroyed, and diamonds are transported downstream by rivers and streams for collection in alluvial diamond deposits. Not all kimberlites contain diamonds, and not all of them are of sufficient quality or quantity to attract interest. However, alluvial diamonds found are usually of higher quality than those found inside kimberlite pipes, because by the time alluvial diamonds were found in their stream, poor quality stones were destroyed by the flow of the river and only high quality stones remained.
One of the major areas of the world in the field of diamond mining, the Kimberley region is now known throughout the world as representatives of the industry. It is located about 500 km from Johannesburg and 1000 km from Cape Town.
Abandoned Mine Landfills
Today, there are several abandoned mines in the Kimberley area that may have economic potential. Three of these dumps are: caravan park dumps, campesdam dumps, and Eddie Williams oval dumps. Kimberley Municipality owns mining rights in these areas, which they hope will turn one day into low-cost housing. The recovery of diamonds can be transported in a factory that is provided and has water and electricity. There is an ideal zone for the disposal of tailings. Kimberley’s infrastructure allows easy access by plane, rail or other means of public transport, which is a great boon for mining in the area.
Reliability reports
While the survey was done late, it is not easy to assess the accuracy of the resulting report. In the first place, both tails and wastes were dumped together, which made the estimates somewhat unreliable, and although samples were taken from certain areas, estimates in other areas that were not tested could differ significantly. The successful recovery of diamonds from the tailings of the Kimberley deposit could indicate poor methods originally used in diamond factories in the previous century. Another possible explanation is that the material previously was too coarse, and smaller stones were not released, or that poorer granular materials were dropped along with the tails. As an experienced investor in New Africa Mining, I would say that the diamonds of this material through the processes of weathering were released and grow in large quantities, as well as increase the number of recoverable diamonds.
Dumps of the caravan park
West of the Kimberley Mines Museum, these landfills contain material originally mined at the Kimberley mine - one of the largest mines that existed as the 19th century drew to a close - from 1871 to 1914. Excavators mined to a final depth of 1097 meters. The caravan park is located on the top of the material from 1 to 2 meters thick, and since it contains about 595,000 tons of tails, graded 9 cpht, there are about 53,550 carats of diamonds located on the ground, with the largest diamond recovering from this dump, while weighing almost 23 carats. In 2005, the landfills were mined for a total of 187 days and at 1112 hours. A total of 74.8 thousand tons were mined, and 4,874.28 carats were mined by an average of 6.7 cents. Estimates are that there is about 42% of the initial dump material, which means that there is an exceptional potential for mining and a great return on the investment that will be required to bring these mines to a fully active state.
Campesdam dumps
Six kilometers north of Kimberley, the Campesdam dumps contain material from the Campesdam mine, first discovered in 1880 and mined until 1914, when World War I began. By this time it was mined to a depth of 104 meters. The dumps of Kamfersdaam’s tailings are located near the abandoned mine Kamensdam north of Kimberley. Historically, the main class of Camfersdam was 28 carats per 100 tons (cpht). The two tailings of this landfill are only 5.2 meters or 5.4 million tons of tailings, which means that 65 million carats were made by 12 cpht. If 1 million tons is extracted here annually, then to use this resource there should be another 4-6 years. Despite the fact that 12 cpht inferred is actually quite difficult to determine the class of material located on this dump, although it can be used for now. It will be important to know the actual estimate, as well as the average cost of a diamond carat, especially if you need to compare it with diamonds found in the dumps of Caravan Park, so that you can evaluate the true estimate of its economic value. Over the next 4-6 years, the extraction of these landfills should be an extremely profitable venture that is worth the investment and a reliable source of income and return on investment.
Eddie Williams Oval Dumps
Approximately 3 km north of Kimberley, there are several landfills that have very few resources left and should not be discussed much further, so this document will refuse to provide any additional data at this stage.
