IDENTITY CRISIS

Famed South African mining town wrestles with its future,

KIMBERLEY, SOUTH AFRICA— At first glance, it appears as if diamond mining is still the centre of Kimberley’s universe.

At 4 p.m. on a grey Wednesday, clusters of deeply tanned men wearing worn jeans are smoking inside the Halfway House, a bar in Kimberley with the unique distinction of holding a drive-in licence, where portraits of British imperialist and De Beers founder Cecil John Rhodes hang on the walls.

The frontier feeling is strong in the remote South African town where the modern diamond industry was launched. “Do you want me to be honest with you?” said Michael Conchor, a 40-year-old bartender wearing a black collared shirt and silver necklace, pointing to a shallow trough running along the base of the bar. “That is for chewing tobacco and pissing, when it was a gentleman’s bar.”

That was more than a century ago, when Kimberley was in the midst of a diamond rush and Rhodes was running De Beers, the company that would go on to dominate Kimberley for decades.

Today, the De Beers era in Kimberley is finally coming to an end. In a shocking announcement in May, De Beers announced it is selling its last Kimberley mine to the highest bidder.

“My dad worked for them 40 years ago in the boiler room,” Conchor said, pouring double brandies and Coca-Cola drinks for a group of rowdy men. “The novelty has worn off, it’s not here anymore.”

The sale comes amid an economic slump in South Africa that sees the continent’s most developed economy struggling to cast off its colonial past while battling to stay competitive.

Across the country, statues of Kimberley’s hero, Rhodes, have been toppled in a wave of protests against white oppression. Meanwhile, economic prospects are looking bleak, with constant strikes in the country’s key platinum and gold mines dampening growth.

Now, in a crisis of identity seen throughout the country, the famed mining town is wrestling with its future as it asks itself: what next?

For those in the diamond industry, it’s a perplexing question. “In Kimberley, diamonds have always been the main focus, the town started with diamonds, our coat of arms has diamonds,” said Nicky Olivier, a 49-year-old manager at De Beers. “This town wouldn’t have been built if it weren’t for diamonds.”

Speaking in the De Beers diamond sorting centre, a sterile building with security cameras studded in its white walls, Olivier said, “everyone knows someone” who works at De Beers. Yet, she added with a sigh. “In reality, all mines come to an end.”

Workers in the mines are distraught, said Lucas Phiri, the regional spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers. “They are so devastated, demoralized and disturbed as to what is going to be the life there after De Beers closes,” Phiri said. “Right now, the town is just left with a big hole.”

So huge it inspires vertigo, the “Big Hole” is what remains of the 215-metre-deep and 460-metre-wide mine that launched De Beers. When it became too costly to mine the established holes any further, De Beers started processing tailings, waste materials from past operations that contain a remarkable amount of gems. A tailing deposit called TR-29 represents the last mine being sold by the company.

“The Big Hole was rigged by human beings using the pick and shovel,” said Phiri, who is in negotiations with De Beers to provide retraining and health care for the families of company workers. “They must do something for the community.”

De Beers insists it will still have a presence in Kim-

“The industry had been sleepwalking, living on past glories and almost becoming detached from the rest of the world.” KIERON HODGSON MINING ANALYST

berley. “We’re part of the fabric and our origins are here,” said a De Beers spokesman, Tom Tweedy, adding workers will have jobs with whoever buys the mine.

“The key to the transaction is to move fast. There is still a lot of potential in this resource,” Tweedy said. “We don’t leave sterile deposits.”

As De Beers pulls out of Kimberley to focus on exploring in neighbouring Namibia, Botswana and even Canada, analysts say the diamond industry is undergoing a revolution.

In the past, diamond businesses were family affairs. The Oppenheimers, for example, controlled De Beers for more than 100 years. Recently, that’s all changed.

“The industry had been sleepwalking, living on past glories and almost becoming detached from the rest of the world,” said Kieron Hodgson, a mining analyst at London-based Charles Stanley Securities. “Following the financial crisis, I think there was an awakening.”

The diamond sector today is more investor friendly and transparent, said Hodgson. “It’s a much more fragmented industry with far more interesting players and stronger players.”

Residents in Kimberley look to construction of a new university and the continued development of the town as the new North West provincial capital as future sources of growth.

They seem ready for the change. Back at the bar, Conchor says its time to disentangle De Beers from Kimberley. “The legacy is dead now,” he said, “they pulled out completely.”

STEFAN HEUNIS PHOTOS FOR THE TORONTO STAR The “Big Hole” of Kimberley, South Africa, is what remains of the 215-metre-deep, 460-metre-wide mine that launched De Beers. It is reputed to be the largest hand-excavated hole in the world.

A 65-tonne bronze statue of mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes, with a map of Africa in his hands, was erected after his death in 1902 by the residents of Kimberley. Elsewhere in the country, such symbols of white oppression, have been toppled.

An uncut diamond at the De Beers sorting centre in Kimberley, where most of South Africa’s diamonds are sorted and graded. "This town wouldn’t have been built if it weren’t for diamonds," says one resident.