Diamond discovery in South Africa – In 1866 in South Africa. a young shepherd by the name of Erasmus Jacobs, while walking along the banks of the Orange River, picked up a stone that looked a little different, he did not know what it was but in fact it was later identified and called the “Eureka” diamond 21.25 carats in size. This was the first discovery of diamonds in the country.
By 1888 the South African Diamond Industry was firmly established with the formation of De Beers Consolidated Mines. The Diamond Industry plays a very important part in the economy of South Africa and Diamonds are found in places in many parts of South Africa.
The main diamond Pipes are found in the Kimberley area of the Cape, and also at Premier mine near Pretoria in Gauteng as well as in many mines in the Free State. There are also large deposits of alluvial diamonds scattered around South Africa particularly in the region of the mouth of the Orange River and along the Namaqualand Coast of the Cape.
There have been many very large diamonds found in the South African Gold Fields the largest being the “Cullinan “ an enormous 3,106.75 carats found at the Premier Diamond Mine in 1905 in what is now Gauteng. The diamond was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan who was chairman of the Premier diamond mining Company.
The Cullinan Diamond was bought by the Transvaal Government for 150,000 pounds and given as a gift to King Edward VII in November 1907 to commemorate his birthday. The stone was cut and polished in Amsterdam over a period of about 2 years into a number of smaller diamonds the largest of which measured 516.5 carats and placed in the Royal Sceptre. The second largest stone of approximately 309 carats was cut square and set in the Royal Crown, both kept in the Tower of London. There were also 105 smaller stones cut from the Cullinan Diamond which are also in various Royal ceremonial objects.
Diamonds are classified by the four C’s – Cut, colour, clarity and carat. These are the ways that a value and quality of a diamond is measured.