Question

Tick the correct answer:
Kimberley is famous for___________
A. Diamonds
B. Silver
C. Platinum
D. None of these

Answer 1

Hint:
- The Kimberley Mine is located in the city of Kimberley.
- It was the location of the ‘New Rush’. It was the name given to the incident when a lot of people scrambled to the area to try to build a fortune out of the deposits.
- The De Beers Company is associated with the mining history of the town.

Complete solution:
 Kimberley is the largest city and the capital of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The city is located around 110kms east of the confluence of the rivers Orange and Vaal. Kimberley has substantial historical significance because of the mining past and the siege of during the Second Anglo-Boer war. In the late nineteenth century the town was the initial hub of the industrialization of South Africa.

 Let us now see what was mined here.-

A. Kimberley is famous for diamond mines. Throughout the years when diamond mining was active in the area, Kimberley yielded 3,000 kilograms of diamonds in total. The mine (also called Big Hole) is one of the largest hand-dug excavations. Therefore, this is the correct option.

B. Silver is not mined in Kimberley. In South Africa, many silver mines are located in the Pretoria region instead. Thus, this is not the correct option.

C. Platinum is not mined in Kimberley. Platinum is mined in Marikana near Rustenburg in South Africa instead. So, this is not the correct option.

D. Since Diamond is the correct answer, this is not the correct option.

Hence, the correct answer is option A.

Note:
- The Kimberley diamond mine is also called the Big Hole, Tim Kuilmine and Groot Gat (in the Afrikaans language).
- Work in the mine was closed on 14th August 1914. By then, 14,504,566 carats of diamonds had been excavated from it.
- An effort to include the Big Hole as one of the World Heritage Site by UNESCO has been going on since the 2000s.
- The Big Hole is now being developed as a tourist spot by the De Beers Company.