Williamson

The Williamson Diamond Mine is a diamond mine 23 kilometres 14 mi northeast of Shinyanga in Tanzania; it became well known as the first significant diamond mine outside of South Africa. The mine was established in 1940 by Dr. John Williamson, a Canadian geologist, and has been continuous operation since then, making it one of the oldest continuously operating diamond mines in the world. Over its lifetime it has produced over 19 million carats 3,800 kg of diamonds.

The Williamson mine, once owned by its namesake Dr. Williamson and later nationalized by the government of Tanzania. The diamond industry of Tanzania in the 1930s was characterized by a scattering of very small mining operations that were insignificant in the economic makeup of the country. Dr. Williamson was hired by one of these operations, the Mabuki diamond mine, in 1938 and used it as his base for diamond prospecting in the region.