Jagersfontein Mine is an abandoned open-pit mine in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 located close to the town of Jagersfontein

Jagersfontein

Jagersfontein is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. The original farm on which the town stands was once the property of a Griqua Jacobus Jagers, hence the name Jagersfontein. He sold the farm to CF Visser in 1854. A diamond rush started in 1870 after farmer JJ de Klerk found a...

 and approximately 68 miles (109.4 km) south-west of Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...

. Since it was first established in 1888, two of the ten biggest diamonds ever discovered, the Excelsior

Excelsior Diamond

The Excelsior Diamond was found on June 30, 1893 at the Jagersfontein Mine by a worker while loading a truck. The man was able to hide the diamond from the supervisors but delivered it to the manager of the mine himself. Until 1905, when the larger Cullinan diamond was found, the Excelsior was the...

 and the Reitz (now called the Jubilee

Jubilee Diamond

The Jubilee Diamond, originally known as the Reitz Diamond is a colourless, cushion-shaped diamond weighing 245.35 carats , making it the sixth largest diamond in the world...

), were mined from Jagersfontein. The term "Jagers" has since been coined to denote the distinctive faint bluish tint of the gems from this mine. Among geologists, Jagersfontein is known as a kimberlite pipe,
Stressed Pyroxenite Nodules from the Jagersfontein Kimberlite, G. D. Borley and P. Suddaby, Mineralogical Magazine; March 1975 v. 40; no. 309; p. 6-12; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1975.040.309.02


Iron carbide and metallic inclusions in diamonds from Jagersfontein, A. P. Jones, D. Dobson, I. Wood, A. D. Beard, A. Verchovsky, H. J. Milledge, 9th International Kimberlite Conference Extended Abstract No. 9IKC-A-00360, 2008 and a prime locality for mantle

Mantle (geology)

The mantle is a part of a terrestrial planet or other rocky body large enough to have differentiation by density. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers. The mantle is a highly viscous layer between the crust and the outer core....

 xenoliths, some of which are believed to have come from depths of 300–500 km (186.4–310.7 ).

Approximately 9.6 million carats (1,900 kg) of jewel

Gemstone

A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...

-quality diamonds were extracted during the mine's century of operation, interrupted only by the two World War

World war

A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....

s and the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. After three decades of open-pit mining, underground mining began in 1913, and continued until its eventual closure on May 28, 1971, less than a year after the centenary of the first diamond discovery in the area. Since then, an Open Mine Museum and the Jagers Mining Village have opened as tourist attraction

Tourist attraction

A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....

s at the site.

Research by historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Steve Lunderstedt in 2005 confirmed that the mine was the biggest hand-excavated hole in the world, slightly larger than the Big Hole

Big Hole

The Big Hole, Open Mine or Kimberley Mine is an open-pit and underground mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and claimed to be the largest hole excavated by hand.-History:...

 in Kimberley, South Africa which had claimed the title up to then. It is probably not the deepest, though, since the final depth of the Big Hole reached 720 ft or more. Jagersfontein was dug by hand to a depth of 660 feet (201 m) by 1911.