IV.—The Somabula Diamond Field of Rhodesia

Extract

The last few years have inaugurated a new era in the history of the South African diamond deposits, inasmuch as rich bodies of diamantiferous ground have been located at great distances from localities which have previously been worked successfully. The group of which the Premier Mine is the best known member is the most striking example of this extension of area, but the centre of gravity of the diamond-mining industry seems to be gradually shifting northward, and the opening up of the interesting deposit of the Somabula Forest, so far north of any other known occurrence, foreshadows the development of an important branch of the industry in the Cinderella of the South African provinces, as Rhodesia has been not inaptly termed.