Jagersfontein
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Jagersfontein is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. The original farm on which the town stands was once the property of a Griqua Jacobus Jagers, hence the name Jagersfontein. He sold the farm to CF Visser in 1854. A diamond rush started in 1870 after JJ de Klerk found a 50 carat (10 g) diamond. Mines no longer operate in Jagersfontein, but there where many great finds, such as the 972 carat (194.4 g) Excelsior Diamond of 1893 and the 637 carat (127.4 g) Reitz Diamond of 1895.
Jagersfontein was one of the more famous Kimberly mines and together with the koffiefontein mine produced one the clearest diamonds of all Kimberly mines in the early 1900s (Streeter called it diamonds of the "first water".[1]
The Reitz diamond was first named after Francis William Reitz, then president of the Orange Free State in which Jagersfontein is located. The following year marked the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria (the 60th anniversary of her coronation) so the gem was renamed the Jubilee to commemorate the occasion.[2]
Jagersfontein has fallen on hard times since the mine was closed.[3]
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