One of South Africa’s premier tourist attractions of historical and mining importance is the Big Hole and Kimberley Mine Museum.

The Kimberley mine, although no longer in operation, is still one of South Africa’s most famous mines.

The mine, originally called Colesburg Kopje, was discovered in July 1871 and was the fourth in a series of diamondiferous kimberlite pipes discovered in South Africa’s hinterland between 1870 and 1871.

The Kimberley mine was a very rich and high-carat-yielding mine, producing gems of the finest colour and clarity. It was this superior richness, compared with the yields of the De Beers, Dutoitspan and Bultfontein mines, that enabled the mine to take the centre stage of South Africa’s burgeoning diamond mining industry.

Indeed, during its lifetime, the Kimberley mine was at the very heart of the mining industry. It was largely the wealth contained in that mine that enabled the diamond magnates to amass their extraordinary fortunes, which, to a degree, lay the foundations of modern South Africa. It was also the technical innovations that were pioneered at the Kimberley mine that helped develop and advance the process of mining and, indeed, spurred the industrial revolution in South Africa.

It is interesting to note that the mine operated for a total of 43 years and, by the time mining ended – on August 14, 1914 – the mine had yielded 14 504-million carats of diamonds, extracted from 22,5-million tons of excavated earth.

The Big Hole museum, adjacent to the Kimberley mine, commemorates the history of that world-famous mining operation. It also depicts the story of the town of Kimberley and the early development of diamond mining in South Africa’s hinterland and also provides a fascinating account of the history of De Beers, the company that has dominated diamond mining in South Africa for more than a century.

This history is superbly presented in the Big Hole Visitor Centre, a building that was once used to house the mine’s diamond-processing equipment in the early twentieth century. The centre is a relatively new feature of the Big Hole museum complex, having been completed in November 2006 with generous funding from De Beers Consolidated Mines.

The Big Hole Visitor Centre essentially focuses on the history and development of the mine, covering such topics as geology, history, chemistry and engineering. As the mine played a central role in the amalgamation of the diamond mining industry in the 1880s, the centre includes information on Cecil John Rhodes, Barney Barnato and Alfred Beit, the men that drove the monopolisation of diamond mining and founded De Beers Consolidated Mines in 1888. The centre also includes a most fascinating timeline, dating from the discovery of diamonds to the present. The timeline tracks the development of South Africa’s diamond mining industry and the growth of De Beers.

One of the highlights of the centre is the Real Diamond display, which is housed in a specially constructed vault and showcases genuine rough and cut diamonds that vary in colour, clarity, and carat. Visitors can also view diamonds sourced from the Venetia, Kimberley and West Coast mines.

Appropriately, the 21¼ ct Eureka diamond, the first diamond to be discovered in South Africa, is housed in this vault, although it is not always on display.

Outside the centre is the Viewing Platform, a specially built ramp and platform that offer visitors the opportunity to see the Big Hole from above. (Interestingly, the size of the square viewing platform is the exact size of a nineteenth century diamond mining claim, which measured 30 square Cape feet.) It is from this elevated position that one can really get a sense of the remarkable scale and grandeur of the hole, which, today, is the largest hand-dug crater in the world, with a surface area of 17 ha and a perimeter of 1,6 km.

However, the Big Hole is far more than a simple museum, boasting a number of attractions that bring the late nineteenth century mining village to life and make it possible for visitors to experience the living and working conditions of that bygone era.

The museum includes an Underground Mine Experience, which enables visitors to enter a recreation of a mine shaft of the latter nineteenth century and experience what were perilous mining conditions.

Adjacent to the Visitor Centre is the Old Mining Town, which brings the former mining village of New Rush to life. The Old Mining Town is, essentially, a collection of preserved or restored buildings, which include, besides others, a church built in Europe and shipped to Kimberley, Barnato’s Boxing Academy, the Occidental Bar, the diggers’ sleeping quarters, and the De Beers coach, which was used by Rhodes to commute between Cape Town and Kimberley.

The Big Hole is certainly a popular attraction, evidenced by the fact that the museum received a total of 83 599 visitors in 2010. As South Africa’s premier mining tourist attraction, it is an unmissable experience for mining history enthusiasts.

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