Kolmanskop site of first Namibian diamond find

Today Kolmanskop is a dusty, windswept ghost town on Namibia’s southern coast, but 85 years ago it was the scene of one of Africa’s largest diamond rushes.

In 1908, Zacharias Lewala, an ex-laborer from Kimberley, espied the glitter of a diamond in sand he was shovelling near Grasplatz, a tiny railway siding just east of Luderitz. He presented the stone to August Stauch, the local railway supervisor, who confirmed that it was indeed a diamond. The discovery sparked a staking rush of monumental proportions, centred around Kolmanskop. Responding to the rush, the German government in September of that year declared forbidden an area extending from the Orange River northward for 360 km to latitude 26 south and inland 100 km. General prospecting in the area was prohibited and those people who had mining rights had to form companies. By 1914, more than 5 million carats had been found (20% of world production at the time). A year later, the German administration in South West Africa was overthrown and South Africa took over the country, allowing nine companies to operate.

In 1920, Ernest Oppenheimer of Anglo American bought out the nine companies for 700,000 rand and formed Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM). Eight years later, on the banks of the Orange River, diamonds were discovered that were six times the size of those at Kolmanskop. With the new discovery, mining interest shifted south and in 1936 the town of Oranjemund was built. Mining operations ceased in Kolmanskop in 1938, and the busy little village — with a furniture factory, soda water and lemonade plant, four skittle alleys, and well-equipped hospital with the country’s first X-ray machine — eventually became a ghost town.

In 1986, CDM started prospecting the area again and built a mine at Elizabeth Bay, 30 km south of Kolmanskop. The mine, which cost 134 million rand to construct, began producing diamonds two years ago and is expected to yield 2.5 million carats over a lifespan of 10 years.