The Kimberley Club, sanctuary of the diamond magnates

The city of Kimberley has, over its’ 140-year history, become synonymous with all aspects of South Africa’s mining and industrial heritage: it was the birthplace of diamondiferous kimberlite mining and subsequently became the birthplace of...

A melting pot of nationalities

Before the discovery of diamonds in 1869 there was little to attract foreign adventurers, prospectors and capitalists to the shores of South Africa, the predominant activity of economic enterprise being sheep farming.

A question of sovereignty over South Africa’s earliest diamond diggings

In 1870 ten thousand hopeful Boer, British, American, Australian, and European prospectors rushed to South Africa’s Vaal River intent on making their fortunes from diamonds.