Cullinan Diamond Mine

Today is a South African national holiday known as Human Rights Day. In 1960, sixty-nine people were killed in Sharpeville when protesting the "pass laws." These laws were meant to opress the blacks in South Africa. Four days later, the government banned black political organizations. As a result, many black leaders were arrested and many more fled. The aim of this public holiday is to remind South Africans of their human rights and to ensure it never happens again.

It was a nice break in the middle of the week, and it was such a perfect day! Steph really wanted to visit the Cullinan Diamond Mine, so we made the 30 minute journey to the town of Cullinan.

We did the "surface tour" that walks you around the grounds of the mine. There is an underground tour where you actually go into the mine, we were not so keen on that. The tour starts with a walk through the original housing for the mining officers (circa 1903), which is now used as offices. Some of the housing is now used as shops and restaurants just across the way from the mine.

The streets were still looking good...even after 100 years of use.

Steph at the entrance to the mine, she was ready to find a diamond! This mine is one of the biggest and most productive diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes in the world. It has produced 3 of the largest diamonds ever found. The largest, the 3,106 carat Cullinan diamond was found by Cullinan just 9 meters below the surface just 2 years after he bought the site for $52,000 dollars. This diamond was sold to the TransVaal government for an obscene amount of money. It was cut in Amsterdam and there were 9 diamonds made from it most of which are with the royal family in England (one on the royal scepter and another on the crown).

Here is the chart that displays the amount of carats they pull out of the mine on a monthly basis...

Here is a close up of the count the left column indicates what their target is the right is the actual right next to it is the most important smiley or frown face depending on the result.

Here is their injury board for the mine, this past year there were only 2 injuries that resulted in some days off of work, not bad!

Here is a demo of how they move the kimberlite rock from within the mine

Explosives carts, nice!

Here is one of the main towers which brings in the equipment down the more than 700 meters below the ground.

This is where the kimberlite is brought from the mine into the main sorting area, as the guide says, you can say "it literally is raining diamonds there."

Here we are infront of the mine...

This is where they store some of the kimberlite before it goes through the sorting process. Now it is done optically making it much more efficent to find the diamonds within the kimberlite.

Inside the main hoist room of the plant

Here is an old 1948 GE transport that was used in the mine.

This is a statue of Mr. Cullinan himself that you see as you exit the store. We thought the prices were a bit high. It was funny, because as we ended the tour (all were South Africans), the guide was talking about Americans on prior tours who were very stingy and bad tippers. We were slightly annoyed but, oh well, it happens.

Here Steph is standing in front of one of the stores selling old items that must have been left behind by the miners. A very nice setting, we are glad we went to visit.