Heavy Duty Machine Graveyard

The Consolidated Diamond Mine, owned by De Beers, is reputed to have the largest private earthmoving fleet in the world. It has been a virtually secret operation since the early 1900’s. There are enough antique machines to stock a museum.



Once a vehicle or piece of equipment enters De Beers diamond mining area, it is never allowed to leave. Since its not practical to search for an object as small as a diamond, De Beers simply assigns all these outmoded vehicles and machines to this eerie graveyard. It was an amazing sight, but I was most frightened of seeing a snake hiding amongst the rust.

Here you can see Sherman tanks, a train of turn-of-the-century railroad cars with German markings and an ominous looking World War 11 battle tank with a British insignia on it had a huge steel blade welded in front of the gun turret as De Beers converted these tanks to bulldozers after the war!