Kimberley’s great claim to fame might be said to be its two great holes in the ground, or perhaps it is really what came out of them. Someone else has pointed out that it is the only city in the world with a mile long street studded with diamonds. The tiny diamonds came out of the great holes. The holes are there because diamonds were found in those two volcanic pipes, and the diamond studded street is the result of the crushed stone that was dug out being completely diamond free when it was hauled down the road in leaky ox carts to be dumped in heaps all around. Diamonds, diamonds everywhere and not a one to keep. That is because they are so small as to be for practical purposes at that time, considered to be useless. All uncut diamonds belong to the De Beers Mining Company, and it is strictly illegal to possess an uncut diamond unless you have a digger’s license. New licenses are not issued. The only way to get one is to inherit it from a licensed digger. These still exist; in fact every time a really old building is moved or demolished, a digger will come in with his ancient “washing machine” and he will wash the soil and crushed stone from the original building site and search by hand for any remaining diamonds.
The mines look like a huge funnel set into the earth. They have steeply sloping sides at the top then drop almost straight down to, and far beyond, the water level. They have been heavily fenced to prevent suicides. A fireman has to go down on ropes to retrieve any body remaining on the slopes. If it falls as far as the water, it is blown up, as it is impossible to retrieve it that far down. In our first years living in Kimberley, we often heard “thunder” out of clear skies. Then we realized that what we heard was the sound started far down the shaft when people tossed stones into the open mine. It worked much like using a megaphone. It is now illegal to throw anything into the mine. A museum beside the opening now features the oldest buildings that were still standing in the city but now have been relocated to a street next to the "Big Hole." There are a boxing gymnasium, a bar, a church, a house and more are added from time to time. These actual buildings now stand in a row while, while several individual rooms are featured in indoor displays.
An aerial photo, hanging in my bath room, showing the “Big Hole” Mine, was taken and printed by Max Ward Randall from the same negative as a giant print which he also made for the DeBeers head offices near the mine itself. The picture above is of the second mine, located just on the other side of the down town area.
Diamonds are the life of Kimberley. I once took a tourist friend to a working mine a few miles out of town. It is hard to realize the tons of blue stone that must be crushed, put through large washers to separae the heavier stones which are then washed across grease tables where the diamonds stick to Vaseline. They remain dry while the wet stones are carried away with the flowing water. A week’s recovery of diamonds is hardly a good cup full, and most of those are only of industrial quality. At intervals the Vaseline is scraped off the sloping table and put into an ordinary frying pan and then warmed so that the Vaseline can be poured off and used again. Under camera supervision, we were each handed a large stone to examine it more closely. I am told that you can no longer visit the mine itself. Instead you must now go to the sorting plant near the head office. I have been there as well. There, you now see the diamonds only through plate glass, and on the second floor which has locked heavy oak doors at both the top and the bottom of the stairs. Workers can be seen hand sorting by color, size, and quality, at their tables behind a plate glass wall of one side of the viewing room. They are constantly being watched and work under camera. A friend who started working at that job, says it is utterly boring work. He was eventually transferred to the head office and given challenging job. The last time I saw him, he had advanced high in the company.
All sorts of wild schemes have been tried to steal diamonds, and some of them have worked in days past. They usually involved the workers in the mine itself and living in the dormitory housing. Workers are now scanned as they leave the premises. There is a special branch of detectives in the police force that specializes in this type of crimes.
All this, and yet the most precious gems of them all are the workers themselves. They come from all over Africa as contract workers who return home after completing their contracts every few months. The mission started and grew through some of these workers who became Christians while they were at the mines. When they returned to their homes they carried their new faith back to their families at home. The same thing happens at the prisons. Our correspondence Bible study booklets featuring topically arranged Scripture texts have been spread by the many thousands through those two avenues as well as through the scholars living the countrys many boarding schools. They also return to their homes, sometimes in other African countries. At the end of the term. Some of these actually fly back to Europe for school holidays.
Jesus said, "as you go, teach all nations, baptizing them..." Matthew 28:19.
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