Когда был найден первый алмаз?
The modern era of diamond mining began in the 1860s in Kimberley, South Africa with the opening of the first large-scale diamond mine. The first diamond there was found in 1866 on the banks of the Orange River and became known as the Eureka Diamond.
In 1869, an even larger diamond was found on the slopes of Colesberg Kopje on the farm Vooruitzigt belonging to the De Beers brothers. This sparked off the famous "New Rush" and within a month, 800 claims were cut into the hillock which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men. As the land was lowered so the hillock became a mine—in time, the world-renowned Kimberley Mine. Following agreement by the British government on compensation to the Orange Free State for its competing land claims, Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1877.
From 1871 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the Big Hole with picks and shovels, yielding of diamonds, and by 1873 Kimberley was the second largest town in South Africa, having an approximate population of 40,000.
1866