Gold mining in South Africa. It is said that South Africa has the largest deposits of Gold in the World, a fact that is being disputed but not proved either way. Even so it is not surprising that South Africa is still one of the largest producers of Gold.
The South African gold coin, the Krugerrand is well known worldwide and its value is measured by the gold value at the current gold market price.
Most of the gold mining is in the area of the Witwatersrand and the African name for Johannesburg is “Egoli” which means city of gold. However that is not where the first gold deposits were discovered.
The first alluvial gold deposits were found by European prospectors between 1840 and 1870 but it was not until 1873 with the discovery of gold at MacMac near Pilgrims Rest in Mpumalanga that the first gold rush began with the biggest strike when Alex Patterson found gold in the Pilgrims creek.
Then came the discovery of alluvial gold in the Barberton area and in 1882 the Barberton Goldfields were opened up. In 1886 quite by chance a man called George Harrison discovered the great Rand Reef in the area of Johannesburg and by 1898 the Witwatersrand Gold production was more than that of the entire United States of America and Gold to this day is still the basis of the South African economy.
Due to the extreme depths of the Witwatersrand Gold deposits, it has become expensive to mine the gold with shafts extending to depths of 3900 m at the Western Deep Level Mine where the temp. rises by 1 degree every 33 meters and therefore requires immense machinery to cool the area so that workers can tolerate the otherwise extreme temperatures. As a result of this South Africa’s gold mining industry faces fierce competition from cheaper Gold from Russia and Australia.
Gold is used in electronics, chemistry, industry, jewellery and, of course, as financial trade.