198 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



only exception to this rule being that of the discoverer of the mine, who was allowed three. 

 Every intending digger had the choice of any of the claims which happened to be vacant, 

 aiul each tenant of a claim paid the owner of the land 10*. per month in return for a licence 

 permitting him to work the claim. Until 1873, the penalty enforced for leaving a claim 

 unworked during a period of seven days was forfeiture of the claim, which could then be 

 transferred to another digger. 



To keep the whole of a claim constantly worked proved somewhat too heav)' a tax on 

 the energy and resources of a single individual, the claims therefore came to be divided 

 up, one man making himself responsible for a half, a quarter or even one-sixteenth of a 

 claim. 



More important than the sub-division of the claims was the amalgamation of several 

 imder one management, a system which began to be adopted in 1877, after the regulation 

 preventing it had been rescinded. Companies were formed to buy up a number of claims, 

 and these, being under one central control, could be worked more expeditiously and 

 economically ; before very long, there were very few claims, or portions of claims, worked by 

 single individuals. Thus in the middle of the eighties, almost all the claims into which the 

 Kimberley mine was divided were in the possession of one or two large companies, while ten 

 years before, these same claims were the separate property of about 1600 persons ; the same 

 change also took place in the management of the other mines. The number of claims in the 

 possession of each company, of course, varied considerably, some having as few as four and 

 others as many as seventy. Many of these companies were formed with perfectly legitimate 

 objects, others however were nothing more than swindles, and the claims they had acquired 

 were usually very soon abandoned. 



The immediate result of the formation of these companies was a large increase in the 

 production of diamonds ; thus while the total output of diamonds in 1879 was about two 

 million carats, in 1880 and 1881 it suddenly rose to over three millions. This large increase 

 was rightly ascribed to the advantages resulting from the partial amalgamation of claims 

 which had taken place, and it was strongly urged that this policy should be pursued to its 

 logical conclusion, and that the whole of each mine should be placed under one management 

 and one system of working. This proposition met at first with great opposition, but was 

 effected in 1887 by the managers of the De Beer's mine, a company which, formed in 1880, 

 gradually acquired claim after claim, until in 1887, with a capital of £2,332,170, it came into 

 possession of the whole of the De Beer''s mine. The formation and development of this 

 company, which since 1887 has been known as the " De Beers Consolidated Mines, Limited," 

 had the effect of greatly reducing the working expenses of the enterprise, which from 1882 

 to 1887 had amounted to 40 per cent, of the value of the output. In 1882 the production 

 of the diamonds cost the company 16*. 6c?. per carat, while in 1887 this amount had been 

 reduced to 7*. 2d. ; at the same time the deposit had increased in richness as greater 

 depths were reached, an increase in the production of about 40 per cent, having taken place. 

 This increase in the richness of the deposit, combined with a diminished cost of production, 

 naturally affected the dividends of the company, which rose from 12 per cent, in 1886 to 

 16 per cent, in 1887 and 25 per cent, in 1888. 



In spite of the success which has attended this effort in the direction of amalgamation, 

 the management of the other mines has not yet been altogether unified, though they are 

 more or less under the control of the powerful and heavily capitalised De Beers Company. 

 This company now has possession of the whole of the Kimberley mine, and the new 

 AVesselton mine, as well as of parts of the Du Toifs Pan and Bultfontein mines. Neither 

 of these two latter mines, however, is now worked, since the open workings have become 



