The world has South Africa to thank for most of the diamonds in existence today. The story of diamonds in South Africa goes back to 1867 when a 15-year-old kid named Erasmus Jacobs stumbled upon a transparent rock on his father's farm near Hopetown on the banks of the Orange River. So happened that Erasmus and his sisters were fond of picking up pretty pebbles on the river's banks to play with. On this day, the boy came across a small white pebble which he carried home to later show his father. The father in turn showed it to a neighboring farmer who doubled up as a collector of fine stones. His name was Schalk van Niekerk. He found it intriguing and offered to buy it from the Jacobs' but they instead gave it to him for free never thinking it was anything of value. Commercial diamond mines in South Africa are scattered across three provinces: the Northern Cape (capital Kimberley), Limpopo (capital Polokwane aka Pietersburg) and Gauteng provinces (capital Jo-burg). Northern Cape The Kaapvaal Craton in central South Africa was endowed with some of the richest diamond-bearing dykes (known as kimberlite dykes) this world has ever seen. Having started out as a boom town, Kimberly became the center of the historic diamond industry in South Africa