The town of Oranjemund lies on the northern bank of the river, which forms the international border with Namibia.
Former CDM manager, Gordon Brown, claimed that for 20 years De Beers had been stripping Namibia of its most precious asset - diamonds at Oranjemund.
As the diamond mining was always moving further south, the northern part of the line as far as Pomona was abandoned in 1931, and some of its materials were used for the extension of the railway towards Oranjemund.