Lüderitz became one of the former German South West Africa, most famous diamond sites. In 1907 railroad worker August Stauch became aware that there might be diamonds in the area as rumoured.
He advised other local labourers to keep an eye open for sparkling stones. One of the workers who had worked in the Kimberley diamond mine in South Africa was familiar with them. He found a sparkling stone and Stauch resigned his railway job in search for more. In 1908 several more diamonds were found and the beginning of a major rush.
The Sperrgebiet, the Prohibited Area was established with limited entry to the region. This mining area, located in the Namib Desert, stretches from the Atlantic coast to about 100km inland. From the Orange River, on the border of South Africa and north to Lüderitz covering 26,000 square km.
Unlike the Kimberley mines, these diamond are found near the surface, which might have once been river beds, now dried up exposing what once laid at the bottom.
WW1 disrupted the diamond mining which produced until then seven million carats. South Africa conquered the region and in 1920 Ernest Oppenheimer consolidated the mines known as CDM and which became part of De Beers.
In 1940 the emphasis was moved to the sea and the shoreline. Transferring the CDM headquarters to the newly formed town of Oranjemund which was closer to the coast.
Lüderitz had become a ghost town, left behind in the desert and a now a tourist attraction. Currently, the majority of diamond mining has moved to marine mining.
No comments:
Post a Comment