Everything about Witwatersrand totally explained
The
Witwatersrand is a low, sedimentary range of hills, at an elevation of 1700-1800 metres above sea-level, which runs in an east-west direction through
Gauteng in
South Africa. The word in
Afrikaans means "the ridge of white waters". Geologically it's complex, but the principal formations are
quartzites,
conglomerates and
shales of the Witwatersrand System. It forms a
continental divide with run-off to the north draining into the
Limpopo River and
Indian Ocean and to the south draining into the
Orange River and
Atlantic. The Witwatersrand lies within the province of
Gauteng, formerly called the PWV area, an
acronym for
Pretoria, Witwatersrand, and
Vereeniging.
The "Rand" or
reef, as the Witwatersrand is sometimes known, is famous for being the source of 40% of the
gold ever mined from the
earth. It extends for 280 kilometres from
Klerksdorp in the west to
Bethal in the east and is 3.6 kilometres (12,000 feet) deep in places. The
South African currency was named after it. The reef's most northerly tip was discovered only a few kilometers from the present day town of
Magaliesburg, at Blaauwbank, in
1874.
Witwatersrand also denotes the
Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area, which spans the length of the gold-bearing reef. The metropolitan area is oblong in shape and runs from the area of
Randfontein and
Carletonville in the west to
Springs in the east. It includes the vast urban areas of the
East and
West Rand, and
Soweto.
JH Davis, an Englishman was reported to have found gold "in considerable quantities" in July 1852 at Paardekraal near
Krugersdorp, which was the earliest discovery on the Rand. Davis had sold £600 worth of gold to the Transvaal Treasury and had shortly thereafter been ordered out of the country in accordance with the prevailing policy of secrecy. In October 1853 Pieter Jacob Marais, born in Cape Town on 31 July 1826, discovered gold on the banks of the Jukskei River - this find too was hushed up. The first mining concern (the
Nil Desperandum Co-operative Gold Company) was formed at Blaauwbank in 1874. Gold was mined at various places on the Rand up to 1886, when the discovery of the Witwatersrand Main Reef set off the historic gold rush. The subsequent discovery of other rich and profitable veins of gold, eventually led to the creation of the largest urban conglomeration in Sub-Saharan
Africa.
At present, the only "operational" gold mining activity in the area occurs at the
Blaauwbank Gold Mine and Museum, situated close to Magaliesburg.
Further Information
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