![]() In 2003, in honor of the mine's centenary, it was renamed the Cullinan Diamond mine. De Beers would continue to operate the mine until 2007, when they sold it to a consortium led by London-based Petra Diamonds. ![]() The task of cutting the stone was given to the Asscher brothers of Amsterdam, and they cut the rough stone into nine major stones, and 96 smaller ones.Ĭullinan's Premier mine would finally be absorbed into the De Beers cartel during World War I, when diamond prices collapsed, and Cullinan needed the De Beers supply system. The English-speaking minority felt no such obligation, but the majority won, and the stone was gifted to the English monarchy. Parliament voted on what should be done with the diamond, with the Boer majority suggesting it should be given to King Edward VII as "a token of the loyalty and attachment of the people of the Transvaal to His Majesty's throne and person". The stone was immediately named after Cullinan, and purchased by the Transvaal Colony government for £150,000, but was insured for ten times more. Owing to one flat surface of the stone, it is believed that the Cullinan was actually a fragment of a much larger diamond that was broken by natural forces. Wells was awarded £3,500 for the find, although there is no record of whether he shared any of the proceeds with Powell. The diamond was discovered by miner Thomas Evan Powell, and immediately given to his supervisor, Frederick Wells. The Cullinan diamond received worldwide attention at a time when news travelled slowly. Owing to its lower quality as a black carbonado diamond, the Sergio has been mostly forgotten in the pages of history. The largest diamond was discovered 10 years earlier in Brazil, and outweighed the Cullinan by 51 carats. Interestingly, and despite many incorrect media assertions to the contrary, the Cullinan is actually the second-largest diamond ever found. On January 26, 1905, Cullinan would etch his name in immortality with the discovery of the largest gem-quality diamond ever unearthed, a 3,106.75-carat gem. Cullinan instead elected to sell his stones through two well-connected independent diamond dealers, Ernest and Bernard Oppenheimer. By 1908, the Premier mine would produce more diamonds than all of De Beers' operating mines combined. Oats dismissed the threat from the Premier discovery. Cullinan did not yield to the pressure, and refused to sell to De Beers. The Premier mine went into production the following year, and continues producing diamonds to this day.Īround the same time, De Beers Consolidated Mines was in the process of buying up all diamond operations in the region under Cecil Rhodes and his predecessor Francis Oats. Cullinan would establish the Premier (Transvaal) Diamond Mining Company in 1902. ![]() Perhaps not even he could have imagined the scope of the mine he had discovered, with a surface area of 32 ha. Cullinan's assumptions would be proven entirely correct, and the Premier diamond fields would be discovered after a few years of trial-and-error exploration. Prinsloo's daughter eventually conceded, and sold the farm to Thomas Cullinan for £52,000, nearly 7 million in today's dollars. Prinsloo's family, which had grown increasing desperate for money, inherited the farm. Prinsloo passed away in 1898, shortly before the onset of the Boer War. He believed that the high ground of the large property must contain the source of the diamonds that had been carried down from elevation, and sought aggressively to purchase the farm, but its owner, Willem Prinsloo, refused to sell. A small number of diamonds had been found in the lands surrounding the Cornelis Minnaar farm in Elandsfontein, and the astute Cullinan correctly recognized that these diamonds must have been carried there by alluvial river systems. Diamond mining was already established in Kimberley at the time, and Thomas turned his eye to prospecting using what limited savings he had accumulated. In 1896, he founded a plant at Olifantsfontein for the production of bricks and tiles. He moved to Johannesburg in 1887, where he worked as a bricklayer. Cullinan was born in the Cape Colony (modern-day South Africa) in 1862. ![]()
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