Head-Gear of the Witwatersrand Gold-Mining Co.
(Photo by Horace W. Nicholls, Johannesburg)
Having advanced the question of the future of the mining industry to the extent of showing a possible gold yield of at least 2,871 millions, spread over a period of seventy years at the rate of between 37 and 40 millions a year, at a moderate estimate, it is pertinent to inquire somewhat into the efficacy of the means for securing this return, the location of anything and its appropriation being two distinct matters. As implied previously, the realisation of this huge prospective gold yield depends upon the circumstances of the industry being at least equal to those of the past. If found to be superior, the ultimate realisation will only be made the more certain. These circumstances may be conveniently classified as external and internal. So far back as the Industrial Commission of 1897 it was recognised that the essentials for the development of the Rand were reduction of taxes and economy in working. The evidence of all the prominent heads of mining groups, both English and foreign, then tendered, in the sum amounted to this. Where the circumstances of a mine are such that they can only be worked at a higher cost than their returns, or with only an infinitesimal profit, either costs must be reduced or the mine compelled to close down. In many cases a reduction of working costs of so moderate an amount as 2s. per ton means the life of a mine, and less than this spells bankruptcy. Where mines had exhausted every effort to reduce working costs, it was also contended with justice that they had established a claim for moral and material assistance on the part of the Government, where it could be properly accorded; indeed, a personal interest, so to say, attached to Government interference, in that the national revenues were jeopardised when mines failed of successful working. The assistances asked for by the mining industry, and which the Government were able to accord, are now notorious, but are worth reciting for the bearing they have on our present subject. They were fiscal reforms conducing to cheapening of labour by reducing the cost of living both for whites and natives; increase in the effectiveness of native labour by the proper enforcement of the Liquor Law, the cancellation of the local spirit monopoly, and the withdrawal of the right of free imports of spirits from Mozambique and the Orange Free State; abolition of monopolies which tended to enhance the cost of materials used in the mines, including those of dynamite, cement, &c.; reduction of rail rates, and abrogation, by arrangement, of the transit dues levied by the coast Colonies, thus lessening first and working costs of mining equipments and materials; promotion of large public works directly or indirectly affecting the mines, such as provision of adequate water supplies, construction of railways, &c.; finally, an equitable and sympathetic attitude of the Governing Power to all and every question having relation to the country’s staple industry. So far as these reforms were appraisable, they were reckoned to be equivalent to a saving of not less than 6s. per ton in working costs. What practical chance there was of gaining the relief sought under the old régime is shown by the futile results of the Industrial Commission’s labours.
DRIVING AN “END” IN MAY CONSOLIDATED MINE, JOHANNESBURG
In some places the holes for blasting are bored by Kaffirs, but as a rule the drives are made with the use of boring machines driven by compressed air. There are few accidents underground, as the rock is so hard that there is little fear of the “levels” falling in. The chief danger is from the gas after blasting ...
But the altered circumstances of the mining industry since the war are evidenced by the reforms already consummated and under weigh, comprising among them some of the leading demands of 1897. This fact is conclusive that, so far as external circumstances are concerned, the mining industry is not only in the enjoyment of equally favourable circumstances with those existing previously, but even greatly superior. By so much, therefore, is the perspective of the gold yield to which we have made allusion assisted towards becoming a reality.
