It may help to realise the enormous value of the Kimberley Mine if I say that two claims, measuring together 62 by 31 feet and worked to a depth of 150 feet, yielded 28,000 carats of diamonds.
The roadways across the mine soon, however, became unsafe. Claims were sunk 100 or 200 feet each side of a roadway, and the temptation to undermine roadways was not always resisted. Falls of road frequently took place, followed by complete collapse, burying mine and claims in ruin. At that time there were probably 12,000 or 15,000 men at work in the mine, and then came the difficulty how to continue working the host of separate claims without interference with each other. A system of rope haulage was adopted.
The following description of the work at the Kimberley Mine at this stage of its history is given by Mr. Reunert:[4]
“A succession of tall, massive timber stagings was erected round the margin of the mine. Each staging carried two or three platforms one above the other, every platform serving as an independent level from which to communicate with the claims below. Stationary ropes were then stretched from the different levels of the stagings to the claims, the ropes being anchored to the ground at both ends: the upper platforms communicated with the claims in the centre of the mine, the lower platforms with those nearer the margin. The hauling ropes were attached to windlasses worked by Kafirs on the several platforms, on which grooved guide wheels for the ropes were also fixed, the buckets being swung from the stationary ropes by little overhead runners and crooks. Arrived at the level of the platform the bucket was tipped into a narrow shoot, down which the ground ran into a bag held ready to receive it, in which it was conveyed away to be sorted. The din and rattle of these thousands of wheels and the twang of the buckets along the ropes were something deafening, while the mine itself seemed almost darkened by the thick cobweb of ropes, so numerous as to appear almost touching. This mode of haulage continued in vogue during the whole of 1873, and if the appearance of the mine was less picturesque than when the roadways existed, it was, if anything, more unique. By moonlight, particularly, it was a weird and beautiful sight.”