PRINCIPAL SOUTH AFRICAN MINES 289
underground working in 1902, when there was a profit of 3d. per load, to 1905, which showed a profit of 8s. 4d. per load.
Open
working was carried to a greater depth in this mine than in either of
the other Kimberley mines. Four hundred feet was the usual limit, but
the Bultfontein was dug to 460 feet.
The De Beers.
The
De Beers diamond mine is about one mile east from the Kimberley and in
the central part of the city of Kimberley. In extent it is 958 feet
east and west by 630 feet north and south and the original locations
covered a surface equal to 622 claims or 13.72 acres. It was in this
mine that Cecil Rhodes centered his interests, and from the nucleus he
created there, forced the Kimberley interests to join the combination
which finally embraced all the producing mines of South Africa at that
time. The De Beers did not in the beginning, nor does it now, yield as
many diamonds as the Kimberley, but the average quality is better,
though not as good as those from the west end of the Kimberley, and the
percentage of crystals which can be cut to jewels is larger. What the
comparative output of the two mines of late years is, cannot be stated,
as the returns are given together in the yearly statements of the
company. In 1907 the combined output was less than that of the
Wesselton or the Bultfontein, and the yield per load was but little
better than either of the latter, the De Beers and Kimberley being .37
of a carat, the Wesselton .32 and the Bultfontein .33.
This mine is more liable to mud-rushes than the 19
