The Big Hole Kimberlite Pipe (Big Hole) is an open pit diamond mine of yesteryear in the Kimberley. The first diamonds here were found on the hill by members of the "red cap party" from the town of Colesberg on the Vooruitzigt farm owned by the De Beers brothers. The diamond rush that followed led to the establishment of the small mining town of Rush, later renamed Kimberley. From mid-July 1871 until 1914, 50,000 workers dug a large pit by hand with picks and shovels and extracted 2,720kg of diamonds. The 463m wide Big Hole was dug to a depth of 240m but then partially filled with rubbish, reducing the depth to 215m. It has since collected about 40m of water, leaving 175m of the excavation visible. After surface operations became too dangerous and unproductive, De Beers began extracting kimberlite rock in an enclosed shaft at a depth of 1,097 m.
In 1872, a year after operations began, the population of the mining camp had grown to 50,000. Many miners died in mine accidents, as well as due to disease and unsanitary conditions with a shortage of water, fresh food and intense heat in the summer. On 13 March 1888, the leaders of the various mines decided to consolidate the individual diggings into one large mine and one large company known as De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited under the management of Cecil John Rhodes, Alfred Bate and Barney Barnato. This large company worked Big Hole until a depth of 215 metres was reached with a surface area of about 17 hectares and a perimeter of 1.6 kilometres. By 14 August 1914, when over 22 million tonnes of earth had been excavated and nearly 3,000 kg of diamonds had been recovered, work on the mine ceased. It is now considered the largest mine on earth dug by hand. In 2005, researchers counted and found that the hand dug Jagersfontein and Bultfontein diamond mines, also in South Africa, are deeper and larger than the Big Hol mine, but they were created using earth-moving machinery rather than purely manual labour.
Diamond mining at Big Hol was closed in 1914. As time went on, more and more tourists began travelling to Kimberley to see the quarry, which became a tourist attraction. In 1960 it was decided to bring the old buildings together in one place and organise a museum. In 1965, De Beers appointed Basil Humphreys as consultant for the "Early Kimberley Open Air Museum" - with townscape, dioramas, mining machinery and transport exhibits. The museum was officially opened during Kimberley's centenary celebrations in 1971.
The museum's collection is continually being enhanced with new exhibits from the diamond rush era. Between 2002 and 2005, De Beers invested 50 million to recreate the mining town that once thrived around Kimberley's "Big Hole" to attract tourists from around the world.
