CHRONOLOGY
1880 (22 May) Birth of Ernest Oppenheimer at Friedberg in Germany
1888 (13 March) Registration of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited
1889 (15 October) Registration of Transvaal Coal Trust, later renamed (29 August
1916) Rand Selection Corporation Limited
1890 (December) First use of the MacArthur-Forrest cyanide process on the
Witwatersrand
1896
Ernest Oppenheimer joins
Dunkelsbuhler and Company in London
1897 (3 June) Registration of Consolidated Mines Selection Company Limited
1901 (21 November) Ernest Oppenheimer becomes a naturalized British subject
1902
Discovery of diamonds near
Pretoria and formation of Premier (Transvaal) Diamond Mining Company
1902 Ernest Oppenheimer arrives in Kimberley
1908 (April) Discovery of diamonds in German South West Africa
1909 (February) Creation of the Diamond Regie of South West Africa in Berlin
1909
U.K. Parliament passes South
Africa Act
1910 (May) Union of South Africa comes into existence
1914 (30 July) Tripartite agreement reached between South African producers,
Diamond Regie and Diamond Syndicate (Rendered abortive by war)
1917 (2 October) Foundation of the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa
Limited
1918
Transvaal Mining Leases and
Mineral Law Amendment Act (No. 30 of 1918) (Creates Mining Leases Board)
1919 (12 November) First inter-producers' agreement signed between the diamond
producers of Southern Africa
1920 (9 February) Incorporation of Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West
Africa Limited
1921 (1 January) Knighthood conferred on Ernest Oppenheimer
1924 (January) Anglo American Corporation admitted to the London Diamond
Syndicate
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