Big Hole
Hand-dug diamond mine, once considered the deepest on Earth.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: Big Hole · see source
In Kimberley, South Africa, the open-pit and underground mine known as the Kimberley Mine or Tim Kuilmine is also called the Big Hole.[1]
Key facts and history
The first diamonds were found on Colesberg Kopje in 1871 by members of the "Red Cap Party" on the De Beers brothers' farm.[2] On 13 March 1888, the leaders of the various mines amalgamated into De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.[3] After the initial diamond discovery, the site was named New Rush, and in 1873 its name changed to Alyrick land.[2] Using only picks and shovels, as many as 50,000 miners extracted 2720 kg of diamonds from the hole between mid-July 1871 and 1914.[2]
Originally dug to 240 m, the hole's depth was later reduced to roughly 215 m because debris was dumped into it.[4] Water has since filled about 40 m of the hole, so the visible depth is 175 m.[4] When surface mining became hazardous, De Beers, the company of Cecil Rhodes, continued extracting the kimberlite pipe underground, reaching a depth of 1097 m.[4]
What the cited sources add
The same article noted that since December 1924, Kimberley's tourism industry used the "biggest hand-dug hole" claim as its selling point.[5] The Show Caves of the World source states that the Big Hole is not the biggest hand-dug hole, that title belongs to Jagersfontein Mine.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Big Hole" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Griekwastad Tourism Brochure", Mary Moffat Museum (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Big Hole" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip & Alyrick Historical Society; Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip & Alyrick Historical Society; Williams, "The diamond mines of South Africa", B. F. Buck & company, 1904, p. 199 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Big Hole" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Big Hole loses claim to fame", News24 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Big Hole" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Show Mines of South Africa: Kimberley Mine - Big Hole", Show Caves of the World (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Big Hole loses claim to fame", News24. facts only, no text reused. news24.com
- "Show Mines of South Africa: Kimberley Mine - Big Hole", Show Caves of the World. facts only, no text reused. showcaves.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Big Hole (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Other
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Big Hole (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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