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THE DIAMOND
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absence of public records up till the consolidation, no definite knowledge regarding the quantity of diamonds won could be had.
It
was in this mine that the interests of Barney Bar-nato, one of the
so-called diamond kings, centered. He had accumulated some money as a
general trader and speculator when he made his first purchase in 1876,
of claims on this chimney. His faith in the theory of Dr. Atherstone
that all these Kimberley mining claims were in volcanic pipes, was
later demonstrated by his purchase of the last claims owned by an
individual in the mines, six in number, situated in the center of the
pipe, for £30,000 each. This was a record price on the Fields. He
continued to acquire claims when many thought that the diamonds ceased
with the upper layer of yellow ground, and by the time that the
underlying blue ground was reached and proved equally rich, or richer
than the yellow, he had obtained an interest which enabled him later to
exercise a powerful if not controlling influence in the affairs of the
Kimberley mine. At the eighth meeting of the De Beers Diamond Mining
Company, Barnato claimed that his interest in the mines of the
Kimberley district amounted to nearly two million pounds. A large
share of this was made undoubtedly by floating stock companies.
An
exact knowledge of the mine could not be had during the process of
consolidating the various interests in it, so after its amalgamation
with outside interests in the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company, it
became difficult to entirely separate its affairs from the others of
the combination of which it was a part, inasmuch as the working of each
was regulated or mod-
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