SiteRecordings

Site PLCP1, or the Colonial Period Kamfersdam mine and dump, is situated on the property immediately north of the proposed powerline alignment and will not be directly impacted on by development. Exactly when mining at the Kamfersdam mine started is not known, but Kimberley’s history, spanning a good 140 years point towards small digger’s camps and associated mining impact initially centered at the DuToitspan, De Beers and ‘New Rush’ mines. However, from roughly 1870-1880, many of these small scale diggings became full-scale mines, resulting in the unification of Kimberley and Beaconsfield in 1912.
The Kamfersdam mine and dump was evidently in existence at the time of the Siege of Kimberley (October 1899 –
February 1900) during the Anglo-Boer War and it is recorded that the Boer ‘Long Tom’ was fired from the Kamfersdam mine dump into Kimberley, with one of the mining sheds hit by a British shell, possibly from ‘Long Cecil’ – January 24, 1900, Diary of a Doctor’s Wife.