Diamonds among graves might get new owner

THERE is a diamond mine that is about to be sold off in South Africa, but the new owner would have to relocate hundreds of skeletons from unmarked graves.

The Free State’s historic Koffiefontein diamond mine is owned by Petra Diamonds, which recently announced that it is “exploring a responsible exit from its investment in the Koffiefontein diamond mining operations in South Africa”.

According to a Business Insider report, the major diamond producer operates three underground mines in the country – Finsch, Cullinan and Koffiefontein – and is responsible for some of the biggest finds over the past decade.

While Petra has found success in Cullinan – selling more than two million carats worth of diamonds in 2021 – its Koffiefontein operations have been troubled.

Maybe it is a cursed place.

The mine, acquired from De Beers in 2007, reportedly netted sales of just 66 650 carats and made an operating loss of around US$10 million.

This loss and the low production were attributed to a “high level of rainfall” – though labour disputes, power interruptions, and high operating costs have marred the mine. Petra has hoped to turn things around by introducing a business re-engineering project.

In a rather more recent update, Petra announced that it had embarked on a disposal process that would run concurrently with retrenchments.

“Given the gross resource base of 5,25 million carats as at 30 June 2021, including 1,11 million carats in the indicated resource category associated with underground resources, it may be feasible for another owner to extend the mine’s life,” Petra Diamonds, which has a current mine plan to 2025, said in a statement.

“The focus of this disposal process will be to identify a technically and financially suitable buyer that could potentially unlock further value from Koffiefontein.”

Koffiefontein, located some 80 kilometres from Kimberley, is one of South Africa’s oldest diamond mines.

The number of claims grew rapidly, and by 1893 Koffyfontein Mines Ltd, the largest company mining the kimberlite pipe at the time, had hired more than 1 000 workers.

Conditions in the compound housing these migrant workers were, like many mining sites at the time, abhorrent.

Unsanitary and cramped living conditions, coupled with limited access to medicine and an ill-equipped mining hospital, led to disaster near the end of the 19th century.

A typhoid epidemic swept through Koffiefontein in 1896. Hundreds of miners fell ill, and many died.

The true scale of this disaster was only partially uncovered more than a century later when, in 2002, three skeletons were unearthed during bulldozing operations near the mine dump.

Archaeologist Zoe Henderson was enlisted to remove the skeletons between April and July of that same year, with a permit from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra), in line with the National Heritage Resources Act.

Thirty-eight skeletons were removed.

According to the Act, no grave older than 60 years situated outside a formal graveyard may be disturbed or removed unless a permit has been granted by Sahra.

“The skeletons seemed to have been buried in an informal graveyard, of which only a part was excavated,” noted Henderson. Evidence showed that the bodies were buried in a hurry as the typhoid epidemic quickly overwhelmed the mine.

“The rest of the graveyard was not excavated, and the decision was taken to leave it undisturbed by further mining operations.”

The removal permit lapsed, and the area surrounding the site of the remains has remained off-limits for the past two decades.

That is until recently when Blue Diamond Mines (Pty), a division of Petra Diamonds operating Koffiefontein, hired G&A Heritage Properties to reapply for a permit to exhume and relocate the remains.

“The mine is proposing to re-mine the tailings areas where many of these graves are located. It is believed that there are more than 500 dispersed graves, some inside various tailing storage facilities and date back to the 1880-90s.”

Blue Diamond Mines has since been awarded a permit to exhume all graves on the mining right area and relocate the remains to the municipal cemetery.

“Authorisation has been received to construct a mausoleum where the remains will be moved to,” Petra Diamonds told Business Insider SA.

But Petra’s exit puts the responsibility of this costly and complex relocation project on the shoulders of the new owner.

“Any obligation imposed through the authorisation obtained would be required to be implemented by the new owner,” the diamond producer said.

–Additional report, Business Insider SA

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