 These were unavailable to ordinary diggers, and the diamond mines were quickly taken over by the "mining capitalists" – large corporations with access to credit, machinery, and labour.The discovery of gold at the Witwatersrand orefields in 1886 triggered a gold rush which greatly escalated this continuing trend.The orefields, which overlapped British and Afrikaner territory, were quickly excavated of all surface deposits and a similar pattern to Kimberley emerged – small diggers were bought out by large corporations.