Diamond Weddings Bridal Fashion Necklace Set Jewelry 57

Diamond Weddings Bridal Fashion Necklace Set Jewelry.

By Samina Aamir. 

The 1867 discovery of diamonds in the Cape Colony, South Africa, radically modified not only the world’s supply of diamonds but also the conception of them. As annual world diamond production increased more than tenfold in the following 10 years, a once extremely rare material became accessible to Western society with its growing wealth. 

Today South Africa maintains its position as a major diamond producer.

The story of diamonds in South Africa begins between December 1866 and February 1867 when 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs found a transparent rock on his father’s farm, on the south bank of the Orange River. Over the next few years, South Africa yielded more diamonds than India had in over 2,000 years.

The first diamond discoveries in South Africa were alluvial. By 1869, diamonds were found far from any stream or river. First in yellow earth and below in hard rock called blue ground, later called kimberlite, after the mining town of Kimberley.

In the 1870′s and 1880′s Kimberley, encompassing the mines that produced 95% of the world’s diamonds, was home to great wealth and fierce rivalries, most notably that between Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato, English immigrants who consolidated early 31ft prospects into ever larger holdings and mining companies. In 1888, Rhodes prevailed and merged the holdings of those synonymous with

diamonds. Today South Africa is one of the highest quality diamond producers.