GENERAL VIEW OF THE SURFACE WORKS OF A RAND GOLD MINE (KNIGHT’S)
Showing the head-gear at top of the shaft, the stacks locating the engine-rooms. A sloping tramway will be seen leading down from the shaft-head, and iron waggons bringing the crushed ore, and taking it away to the “battery” or “mill.” The waggons are driven by an endless wire rope, and discharge automatically. Beyond, in the middle distance, may be seen the huge white heap of “tailings,” the waste débris after the gold has been extracted. Each mine has its own electric-light plant.
Photo by Barnett & Co., Johannesburg
Allusion has been made to the probable continuation of the Rand formation beyond its present area; but, as a matter of fact, the Witwatersrand series of reefs, or an amplification of them, has been more or less proved for a distance of nearly one hundred miles to the north and south. The strike of the reefs is not uniformly continuous—in fact, the reefs are intersected by quite a numerous series of faults, and in many places they have been subjected to extensive denudation, to the extent of complete obliteration of the outcrop in places. Nevertheless at various points very remunerative mines have been established, and although, on the whole, the character of possessing a low-grade ore is attributed to these reefs, this is probably due more to the very incomplete prospecting to which the area has been subjected than to any actual lack contrasted with the better known central section of the Rand. On this subject Mr. Bleloch makes the apposite observation that “it is not reasonable to think that only the richest portions of the Witwatersrand zones have been laid open on the surface, and that the sections which remain covered are poor. It is probable that many portions of these hidden areas contain reefs, if not rich at least payable, and this may especially be hoped for in that region where the reefs are completely hidden, and at the two ends of which, where they are exposed, they are found to be payable.”
General View of Surface Works. Witwatersrand Gold-Mining Co.
(Photo by Horace W. Nicholls, Johannesburg)
The eastern section of this greater Rand is about 30 miles in extent, or 140 miles if the contours of the outcrops be followed. In the western section the conglomerate may be followed for 90 miles as far as Klerksdorp, when the formation swerves back to the Vaal River. So far back as 1890 gold-bearing reefs on the banks of the Vaal River were known, and identified by experts as the south-western rim of the Witwatersrand basin; but lack of railway facilities and cheap coal then precluded their profitable working. This district is now surrounded by railways, and the circumstances are so improved that the possibility of creating a new Rand in the locality is regarded as feasible by both experts and capitalists, as, albeit only low-grade ore has as yet been met with, this is properly held to be hardly a fair index of what lies below, for experience in the Central Rand has shown that the reefs often improve lower down. The recently reported “new discoveries” of reefs actually refer to this particular district.
The prospect before these outlying areas of the Rand is further authoritatively confirmed by a recent report of the Commissioner of Mines, in which he observes: “While the expansion of the Witwatersrand is certain, the future of mining in the outlying districts will largely depend upon the introduction of a mining law which will give greater facilities and hold out greater rewards to the individual prospector and small capitalist.” This observation is true regarding many other mining fields in the Transvaal besides that of the Greater Rand.
Although in speaking of gold-mining in the Transvaal the Witwatersrand is usually meant, it must not be lost sight of that the Transvaal possesses other gold-fields of great potentialities and of older date. The De Kaap fields in the Barberton district were the object of attention before those of the Witwatersrand were discovered, and at one time bulked hugely in the public eye. Unknown reserves, both of alluvial and quartz gold, exist, those reefs of the latter which have been worked yielding in many cases a much higher ratio of gold to the ton than do the famed banket beds of the Witwatersrand. The Sheba mine in this district, a case in point, is one of the most remarkable gold mines in the world, nearly 90 feet of ore having been taken out of some stopes. The quartz reefs extend over a distance of 30 miles, mainly in the hilly districts, while the alluvium occurs in most of the river valleys. The development of the district in the past has been hampered by a number of remediable causes, chief among which are unscientific working, monopolist concessions, excessive railway and customs burdens, and general governmental neglect. With the removal of these, gold-mining here is believed by experts to offer prospects not inferior, perhaps, to those of the Rand. The recent Government proclamation throwing open the district to pegging, with the contemplated modifications in the Gold Law favouring prospectors, are earnests that this splendid mineral reserve will at last have that justice done to it which is its due. Next in importance to the De Kaap gold-fields come those of the Lydenburg district. The gold exists here in a similar quartz reef formation, with, also, unusually rich alluvial tracts; but not one-tenth of its resources are known, although since the start of the workings an output valued at £2,000,000 sterling has been achieved. A number of paying companies are at work, but the drawbacks under which the development of these fields labour are very much those which prevail on the Barberton fields. The northern gold-beds, including the Zoutpansberg, Klein Letaba, Murchison, Selati, &c., are likewise of the quartz formation, and they have been worked to a limited extent over a longer period than either of the two preceding fields. The Murchison gold-belt is particularly noticeable among these fields. The principal or southern reef, 18 inches in thickness, is said to extend for 18 miles, and to be workable down to 1000 feet, and to contain a gold contents of £25,000,000 sterling. The northern reef is estimated to be capable of producing £20,000,000 of gold. Development waits, in all these auriferous regions, primarily on the provision of railway facilities to get up machinery and mining requisites; and the extension of the Pietersburg line, which has been promised, or the completion of the long-projected Selati railway from where it left off, would be as the breath of life to the mining industry here. Two other promising mining fields, generally separately grouped but really a portion of the De Kaap system, are the Komati or Steynsdorp and the Swazieland gold-fields. The former exists on the Swazieland border, not far from Barberton, and is rightly regarded as merely an outlier of the mineral formations of that district. The numerous reefs have, however, only yielded as yet low-grade and refractory ores. The Swazieland fields have only been prospected in the north-west of that territory, but the results have shown that a considerable body of ore exists. Its gold output in 1898 totalled 8256 oz. Minor fields are those of Malmani, on the western border near Mafeking, the Pretoria quartz reefs, and the banket beds of Vryheid (the last now incorporated into Natal). The prospects of all these fields are very large, and their requirements are alike. Conditions tending to lessen the cost of working, and facilities to induce the advent of the prospector and to justify the investment of capital, will reverse in their cases the dubious records of the past, while adding immensely to the wealth of the Transvaal’s gold production resources.
