This huge company further worked on the Big Hole until it came to the depth of 215 metres, with a surface area of about 17 hectares and perimeter of 1.6 kilometres.

By 14 August 1914, when work on the mine ceased, over 22 million tons of rock had been excavated, yielding 3,000 kilograms (14,504,566 carats) of diamonds.

The self-sufficiency and independence of the African rural homestead was questioned by the British government[7] which also contributed to the acceleration of land dispossession, especially in the 1870s.

[8][7] The origins and features of the apartheid city structure can be traced back to the particular class, social and economic circumstances of rapid industrialisation in Kimberley.

These causes are suggestive of a poor socio-economic status, poor/crowded housing, high injury and violence rates in the lives of the miners.

[8][10][11] The majority of mine accidents were caused by rockfalls and rockbursts, trucks and tramways, explosives, and the cages and ships that transported workers and ore between the underground and the surface.

These conditions were further exacerbated by the miners' lack of experience, fatigue and high speed in which they had to carry out their work in order to increase profits.

To me, Child of Rakhali I am not dead; even now I still live, I am a wanderer of the mines; Sootho Burials for paupers occurred in Glastone cemetery from 1 March 1883.

Many records were lost to fire; however, surviving reports state that between 24 June 1887 and 28 November 1892, 5000 black burials happened at Glastone cemetery.

[11] The bodies of miners were viewed as an issue of waste disposal by the mines/city council and the African rituals and mourning processes were of no concern to authorities.

By the 1960s, a gathering together of relics of Kimberley's early days, including old buildings and sundry memorabilia, began to be organised into a formal museum and tourist attraction.

Between 2002 and 2005 De Beers invested R50 million in developing the Big Hole into a tourism facility, based on the idea of creating "a lasting legacy for the people of Kimberley".