The Big Hole at Kimberley seen from the viewing platform rim, a single adult visitor standing at the rail showing the pit's scale

Section 06 of 08

Mines

Named mines with documented addresses — Mogok, Ratnapura, Muzo, Kimberley, Coober Pedy, Argyle, Diavik — and the geological and human record of each.

River gravel, marble, black shale and kimberlite pipe — the ground each material comes out of.

Photo: Downtown Kimberley seen from the west 2015 · Wikimedia Commons

Aerial view of a circular reservoir spillway resembling a giant eye surrounded by dark water

Lead piece

The Big Hole Was Dug by Hand in Twenty-Three Years

Documents the Kimberley open-cast mine — 240 metres deep, 17 hectares, dug between 1871 and 1914 largely by hand tools — covering the kimberlite pipe geology, the IDB (illicit diamond buying) legal history and the 1889 De Beers Consolidated acquisition.

Two derelict wooden train carriages sit beside railway tracks in dense fog

Ratnapura's Gems Come Out of a Riverbed, Not a Rock Face

Documents the illam alluvial gravel deposits of the Ratnapura district in Sri Lanka's Sabaragamuwa province — the geological process by which corundum, spinel, chrysoberyl and garnet concentrate in Miocene-age river gravels — and the pit-and-winch extraction method still in use.

Mines

Rolling hills dotted with scattered houses and green terraced fields under a partly cloudy sky

Ilakaka Had No Name on the Map in 1998

Documents the 1998 alluvial sapphire discovery near Ilakaka in Madagascar's Horombe Plateau — from a single roadside find to a shanty town of forty thousand within two years — covering the gem-quality range (blue, yellow, padparadscha) and the subsequent formalisation of the concession system.

Mines

Workers in safety vests inspect rows of tall pipes marking a mineral exploration grid

Diavik and Ekati Put Canada on the Diamond Map in the 1990s

Documents the 1991 kimberlite discoveries at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories by Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson, the opening of Ekati in 1998 and Diavik in 2003, and the winter ice-road logistics that supply both operations across frozen Lac de Gras.

Mines

Localities

Where the material named on this site comes out of the ground

Seven named workings and trade centres, at their coordinates: Mogok in Burma, Ratnapura in Sri Lanka, Ilakaka in Madagascar, Montepuez in Mozambique, Chanthaburi in Thailand, Sar-e-Sang in Afghanistan and the cutting floors at Surat.

Geometry: map kit

Everything in Mines

The Big Hole Was Dug by Hand in Twenty-Three YearsDocuments the Kimberley open-cast mine — 240 metres deep, 17 hectares, dug between 1871 and 1914 largely by hand tools — covering the kimberlite pipe geology, the IDB (illicit diamond buying) legal history and the 1889 De Beers Consolidated acquisition.
Ratnapura's Gems Come Out of a Riverbed, Not a Rock FaceDocuments the illam alluvial gravel deposits of the Ratnapura district in Sri Lanka's Sabaragamuwa province — the geological process by which corundum, spinel, chrysoberyl and garnet concentrate in Miocene-age river gravels — and the pit-and-winch extraction method still in use.
Ilakaka Had No Name on the Map in 1998Documents the 1998 alluvial sapphire discovery near Ilakaka in Madagascar's Horombe Plateau — from a single roadside find to a shanty town of forty thousand within two years — covering the gem-quality range (blue, yellow, padparadscha) and the subsequent formalisation of the concession system.
Diavik and Ekati Put Canada on the Diamond Map in the 1990sDocuments the 1991 kimberlite discoveries at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories by Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson, the opening of Ekati in 1998 and Diavik in 2003, and the winter ice-road logistics that supply both operations across frozen Lac de Gras.