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Desert Rose
Desert Rose
Crystal
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Date c. 2015 Origin Namibia Size 45mm x 56mm x 37mm Acquired April 2015 From On the way to Luderitz Price Memory Fails
Gold Mining Industry of South Africa
“Although searches for gold in South Africa date back to the early Dutch settlement, the first finds of real importance were not made until the 1870s. These resulted in a gold field being established in Pilgrim’s Rest-Lydenburg area of the North-Western Transvaal to mine deposits on or near the surface. In 1883, prospecting was started on Witwatersrand by H. W. Struben (1840-1915) and his brother F. P. T. Struben (1851-1931) which led to the discovery of the Confidence Reef on the farm Wilgespruit in September 1884.
The Main Reef gold-bearing series was discovered on the farm Langlaagte, near present-day Johannesburg, in February 1886. Although the discovery was to prove momentous in South Africa’s history, it is not known precisely how the find was made and there have been several claims to this honour.
Discoverer’s rights were, however, granted by the Government to George Walker and an Australian, George Harrison, one of whom is reputed to have tripped over the Main Reef outcrop and dislodged a piece of ore which he panned and found to be auriferous. Some authorities state that the work of the Strubens made this discovery inevitable.
There is controversy, too, over the geological history of the reef and others discovered later. These reefs are part, or extensions, of the Witwatersrand Rock System, a system of layers of sedimentary rocks about 25,000 feet thick. At first these layers may have been deposited more or less horizontally but subsequent earth movements and contractions moulded them into the shape of a saucer. One theory is that gold, in the form of finely-divided particles was carried down by rivers and deposited on the bed of a great inland lake which formed in the saucer …
The Gold Mining Industry was developed from this outcrop, first in a series of shallow workings and incline shafts. Later it was necessary to follow the ore bodies deep below the surface…
From the earliest days it was recognised that the common interest of the gold mines could best be advanced by a central, co-operative organisation. Hence the establishment of the Transvaal Chamber of Mines in 1889…” (Rosenthal 1967:211-213).
