Kleinzee

Kleinzee or Kleinsee is a small Village on the west coast of the Northern Cape province in South Africa,
Kleinzee is a village just south of Grootmis at the mouth of the Buffels River, 72 km south-east of Port Nolloth and 105 km west of Springbok. It is known for its diamond-mining operations. Founded after 1927, the name is Dutch and means 'small sea', referring to a lagoon at the mouth of the Buffels River.
The Buffels River "flows" through Kleinsee, but most of the time it is just a dry river bed and only flows approximately every ten years.
The Primary School does not exist anymore, it is now a Center for learning and Development
Its population size generally consisted of around 2,000 residents, but was considerably reduced by the down-scaling of mining activities in 2009.
Legend tells that a teacher by the name De Villagers from the local farm school had built a new school. He was looking for lime deposits to whitewash the walls. Accompanied by a builder called Alberts he kicked at a mound in the veld and then dislodged a diamond with the toe of his shoe. It was then recorded as the first alluvial diamond found about a year after the discovery of the deposits at Alexander Bay. Within three weeks De Villagers and Alberts collected diamonds worth £600 which was a small fortune in those days. They then sold their claims to an exploration company which eventually opened up the Kleinsee 'crater', reminiscent of the 'Big Hole' at Kimberley. This area then become known as the Diamond Coast.
References.
Kleinzee is situated on the west coast of the Northern Cape. Inland, it is bordered by dry semi-desert land and the Atlantic Ocean coastline on the western side. Kleinzee is 70km from Port Nolloth to the north and 105km from Springbok to the east. 
Kleinzee: A snippet from history
Jack Carstens held a belief that the Port Nolloth coastal area has diamond deposits. He persisted despite the sceptical attitudes of some of his acquaintances. In 1913 his father had sent some gravels dug up from a riverbed south of Port Nolloth to dr Marloth, who declared the gravels “without a doubt diamondiferous”. 
Jack continued in his search and he found the first diamonds in Namaqualand on the farm Oubeep near Port Nolloth on the15th of August 1925. 
Jack thereafter investigated reported diamond finds near Grootmis . A year after his first find, he found diamonds on the farm Kleyne Zee, a freehold at the mouth of the Buffels River. 
Mining of the diamonds started in 1927 on a small scale and a year after, in 1928, mining operations were incorporated into the Cape Coast Exploration Company (CCEC), under Chairmanship of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer. Thirteen years later, in 1941 The Cape Coast Exploration Company (CCEC) was in turn incorporated into De Beers.
Due to a recession in the diamond market from 1932 to 1937 and also due to the second world war from 1939 until 1945, mining operations were periodically halted. 
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The town Kleinzee was established on the farm Kleyne Zee. Kleinzee became the operational and administrative centre of the mine. Mining was limited to Kleinzee until the late fifties, as mining leases for the other properties that De Beers held in the coastal region, were only obtained during 1956.
Kleinzee is situated on the mouth of the Buffels River. Though the river is running through town it is a semi-permanent dry river bed. The large underground water table, near to the ground surface, was a very favourable environmental condition for establishing the town of Kleinzee.