Jagersfontein
Mention
has been made previously of the Jagersfontein mine. It was the first of
the so-called " dry mines " discovered. The mine is very large,
containing 1124 claims. The average yield of the ground is about eleven
carats per one hundred loads. The quality of the diamonds far
surpasses the yield of any other crater. The mine is noted for its
large blue-white diamonds, and, now and again, an exceptionally large
stone is found. One stone cut as a brilliant weighs 239 carats and is
without a flaw.
Two
full-size reproductions are here given of the largest diamond found in
the mine, its weight being 971 carats. For
many
years after their discovery, the richer mines of Kimberley offered
greater inducements to the digger as well as to the investor, but the
fever for consolidation attacked the directors of some of the
principal companies in this mine, and the New Jagersfontein Mining and
Exploration Company Limited
was incorporated in 1888, about the same time as De Beers, and the
various interests were gradually absorbed. The mine is still worked in
the open, and during the last few years has had some difficulty with
falls of reef.1 The reef, from the surface down to the depth of about twenty feet, is shale.
1 See Appendix VI.
