South Africa is particularly rich in mineral resources and has been one of the leading raw material exporters in the world for more than a century. The main raw minerals are gold, diamonds, platinum, chromium, vanadium, manganese, uranium, iron ore and coal. This is why there is so much mining in the country. However, one of the most famous is The Big Hole - an open-pit and underground mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and claimed to be the largest hole excavated by hand.
150 years ago, the site of the Big Hole was a featureless, flat-topped hill. When word spread that diamonds had been discovered, thousands of prospectors, armed with nothing more than picks, shovels and hope, descended on Kimberley and created the largest hand-dug excavation in the world.
Digging commenced at the Kimberley mine site in 1871. By the time mining ended on 14 August 1914, the mine had yielded 6,000 lbs of diamonds, extracted from 22.5 million tons of excavated earth. It was excavated to a depth of 790 feet, but then partially infilled with debris reducing its depth to about 705 feet. Since then it has accumulated about 130 feet of water, leaving only 574 feet of the hole visible.
It is surrounded by original buildings from the heyday of the mine, relocated from earlier sites to form an open air representation of early Kimberley, with streetscapes and dioramas and exhibits of mining technology and transport.
In 1872, one year after digging started, the population of the camp of diggers grew to around 50,000. As digging progressed, many men met their deaths in mining accidents. The unsanitary conditions, scarcity of water and fresh vegetables as well as the intense heat in the summer, also took their toll.
On 13 March 1888 the leaders of the various mines decided to amalgamate the separate diggings into one big mine and one big company known as De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. This is now we know De Beers today:
The phonograph in that bar diorama is rad, but the mannequins are creepsters!
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