The first records we have of people deliberately looking for diamonds indicate that this happened in India. Diamond mining as an industry started there more than 2,500 years ago!

Diamonds were prized from the very beginning. In fact, before the fifteenth century, diamonds were still so rare that only kings and queens owned them.

It was not until 1430 that the custom of wearing a diamond as a personal ornament was introduced. A lady named Agnes Sorel started the fashion in the French Court, and the custom spread throughout Europe. As a result, there was feverish activity in India for more than 300 years to supply diamonds.

Finally, this source became exhausted, and fortunately, diamonds were found on the other side of the world—in Brazil, in 1725. The jungle and tropical climate made conditions very difficult, but for more than 160 years, Brazil was the world’s chief source of diamonds.

Today, the capital of the diamond empire is South Africa where, in 1867, important sources of diamonds were discovered by accident. A poor farmer’s child found a pretty stone. A shrewd neighbor who recognized it as a gem diamond bought it, and when he sold it,diggers of all ages and nationalities flocked to the scene.

Within a year, three great diamond fields were found and the city of Kimberley, the heart of a great diamond empire, was born.