Five years later, in 1895, Johannesburg was known to hold 102,000 people, this number being equally divided between White and Black residents. Kimberley mine in 1873, only a few years after the digging for diamonds started Discovery of Gold and Diamonds in South Africa When gold was discovered in the eastern Transvaal (Pilgrim’s Rest, Mac-Mac Waterfalls and Barberton) a similar process took place. That the meteor came in at an angle, from the South, is demonstrated by the Witwatersrand ridge being most disturbed and deformed, to the North of impact. The first discovery of gold in the region is recorded as being in 1852 in the Pardekraal farm by J.H. Remembering, not forgetting: A visit to Sandstone Estates, Smoke and Mirrors - The Martini-Henry Rifle at Isandlwana, A short history of the Siege of Elands River Post, Take a walk with Nelson Mandela in Alexandra Township, Early Bird Special - Footloose in Historic Noordhoek Starting in Sunnydale and Brakkekloof, The Heritage Portal in Numbers (December 2020). With my limited knowledge of chemistry, I presume that: The boiling water coming into contact with the sulphur formed a dilute sulphuric acid and hydrogen gas. The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 led to a series of events which changed the character of the young Boer republic and changed forever the economic and political relations between Britain and the Boer republics and eventually led to the war of 1899. It would seem that this continued into the time of the dinosaurs, or other hard boned animals, as fossils of such bones have been discovered along the present Florida Ridge. Some were bigger than others. The first crushing battery, consisting of five stamps, had been erected on the Reef in 1885 to service the Struben's excavations on the lower West Rand reef, but this was a small operation, and the first crushing machinery ordered specifically for the new Reef diggings began to arrive from the coast in 1887. Gibson, Wits University. University of Johannesburg, School of Mining, Library. 375 (2003): The debate on the origin of the Witwatersrand Gold (1896-1903). At impact the meteor certainly penetrated deep enough to open and allow magma far underground to escape in places. 1886, gold was found along the Witwatersrand, and this by 1914 was to make the South African gold industry the world’s top producer . Could this have been the source of the Iron Pyrite? Today if one studies the formation of the ground between the Main Reef and the Witwatersrand Ridge, one realises that the ground slopes gradually up, then drops dramatically, over the Ridge, in fact there are two ridges in most places, this becoming more extreme towards Krugersdorp and Randfontein. The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a gold rush in 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa.It was a key part of the Mineral Revolution.. Vredefort Dome Central Uplift (Google Earth). However, these diggings had also been largely alluvial in nature and, despite the fact that ore deposits on the new reef seemed to be both concentrated and of a long life expectancy, the Government took the view that Johannesburg would be no different from any of the other gold mining villages which had preceded it. It may in fact have been an ice-comet as no remains were found, the ice melting instantly under fantastically high temperatures. Explorer and prospector Jan Gerrit Bantjes [ af ] (1840-1914) was the first and original discoverer of a Witwatersrand gold reef in June 1884 having prospected the area since the early 1880s, as well as co-operating the Kromdraai Gold Mine in 1883 to the NW of present-day Johannesburg together with his partner Johannes Stephanus Minnaar in an area known today as "The Cradle of Humankind". In practical terms this meant that, from the onset, it became heavily reliant upon an existing system of rural animal-drawn transports. Later on, mining engineer Biccard Jeppe listed a number of advantages which, in his opinion, had facilitated gold mining in the area. In times of rain as water reached the hot rock, they cracked the underlying rock, allowing sulphur, gold, iron rich mud, silver and uranium, to boil out in huge quantities, fanning out across the low lying ground to the South, and spreading their minerals as they spewed. Disclaimer: Any views expressed by individuals and organisations are their own and do not in any way represent the views of The Heritage Portal. Piercey (2013): Sedimentary origin of gold and uranium in the Archean Witwatersrand Supergroup, South Africa. So much so that early gold-separation over copper plates covered in Mercury could not separate it and almost caused the mining on the Witwatersrand to shut down. These included seasonal variations, which were not unduly severe, as well as the almost total lack of noxious fauna and flora, most specifically insects and bacteria dangerous to man. New towns were established to accommodate the huge influx of people. JHF Virtual Tours will put the spotlight on Witwatersrand and its gold’s discovery. With the invention of the electron microscope, minute particles of meteor debris were identified, providing evidence of the massive impact event. Does anyone have material on the Holpan Diamond Diggings? Photo: Supplied. My own observations on the ground,  on my own and while guiding tourists, and researching this paper. Although gold was by no means a new discovery in South Africa, prior to 1886 it had only been found in small quantities, and mainly by European prospectors. Click here for details on how to contribute and here to advertise in our newsletter. They therefore believed the gold could not continue for more than about 30 to 50 meters underground. That it may be impossible to discover the Johannesburg pipe is obvious, with the City built on top of it. This piled up along a roughly East-West line to form the Witwatersrand Ridge, about 120 kilometres from impact. Despite this, the vast majority of the Reef's companies were still engaged in surface mining and the only real shafts sunk to date were on the Jubilee and Langlaagte properties. The first of these to be erected was a three-stamp Sandycroft on the Jubilee Mine, which came into operation on 22 April of that year, and by the end of 1887 it had been followed into production by the Wemmer, Ferreira, Salisbury, Wits (Knights), Meyer & Charlton, George Goch, Jumpers, City and Suburban, Geldenhuis Estates, Langlaagte, Robinson and Wolhouter mines. If my conclusions are correct, what Fred Struben and others found, was the tops of the vents or springs, displaced North by the meteor impact, and sheared off from the parent pipes. The gold and mineral rich layers were displaced downwards like the saucer of a cup, the ‘hinge, being along the Witwatersrand ridge and sloping downwards at angles around 30 degrees at surface and curving out as deep as six km underground. Although legends of a South African “El Dorado” existed among the natives of the area, it was not until 1886, when a poor Australian prospector named George Harrison staked the first claim, that the vast riches of the “Rand” were discovered. In 1852, the English prospector J.H. The Witwatersrand Gold Rush initiated South Africa’s domination of world gold production. Thermal subsidence and associated deposition of the 2.64 to 2.43 Ga Chuniespoort Group led to low-grade burial metamorphism of the Witwatersrand strata, to basin dewatering, oil migration, and partial gold mobilization within the Witwatersrand basin fill. Another find by Pieter Jacob Marais was recorded in 1853 on the Jukskei River, but was subject to similar secrecy. Capital, mine personnel and technical expertise were available from the Kimberley diamond mines, as well as the gold fields of Australia and North America. Thus, initially at any rate, life in the new mining town was one of uncertainty and, for a number of years many of its early buildings retained their prefabricated iron-and-timber character. As a result, the initial survey and layout of the settlement was made with impermanence in mind. When Fred Struben discovered the “Confidence Reef, he states in his diary “ I was finding a … An availability of unskilled labour, which he described as being "virile and excellent workers under white supervision". The rock was found to contain both gold and diamonds—a rare combination similar to that found in the world’s richest gold deposit in South Africa. (it should be noted that we do not know for certain the exact compounds or contaminants being brought up in the springs). The semi-circular shape of the Wits ridge forming an outer rim of the crater. Midway between these dates, in 1886, the world’s largest goldfields were discovered on the Witwatersrand. Iron pyrite and water. By the end of the following year, in 1888, the number of companies had dropped down to 39, only to rise up again to 52 by the end of 1889. These springs, heated to boiling far underground where water came into contact with hot rock in turn heated by lavas from the Rietfontein series of faults, carried iron-rich mud. The prospectors Fred and Harry Struben made the first discovery of gold-bearing Witwatersrand Supergroup rocks in January 1884 on the farm Sterkfontein near Kromdraai. By this time it had been realized that the Reef extended not only to the east and west, but also downwards with persisting values of ore. At the time mineral outputs averaged £1 per oz per ton of rock mined. Many photos are submitted by heritage enthusiasts across the country. Know something about this topic? Today this can be seen at the Roodepoort Botanical Gardens where a cliff face exposes these layers. This appears to be the unchanged remnants of the muds brought up by the hot springs, yet too distant from the impact to have suffered chemical change. When the Struben brothers, Fred and Harry, began prospecting the Witwatersrand ridge around 1883-4, they found gold in small quantities in the streams and quartzes. The sub-division of what became the settlement's central district was a typical product of nineteenth century mining camp planning. Ridge, stretching from Krugersdorp through Kloofendal and the Melville Koppies. The Rand’s healthy and equitable climatic conditions. The University of the Witwatersrand, William Cullen Library. Davis discovered the first gold in the Witwatersrand, leading to the South African gold rush and the discovery of much more gold deposits within the basin. A heavy in-migration of miners followed, and the city of Johannesburg grew near the centre of the Witwatersrand. Primary among these were: Not all of these advantages were immediately perceived. Thus, within a short time, the mining town's rapid growth began to overtax its infrastructure to a degree that it also created problems in other areas, such as its supply of potable water. When George Harrison discovered the Main Reef of gold at Langlaagte farm in 1886, it was believed by many to be an old river that had been turned on its side. By then 14 mines and 93 stamps were in operation, with a total annual output of 19,080 oz of gold. Reimold and R.L. The ore was rich and located close to the surface. On 14 September 1886, the first large mining company on the Reef, the Witwatersrand Gold Mining Company, was formed with a total nominal capital of £3,063,000. It has produced some 2 billion ounces over a century of mining and at an average grade of 15 g/t Au with a current head grade of 6-10 g/t Au and they still have estimated reserves of some 1,161 billion ounces (36,000 tonnes). The Witwatersrand Basin is approximatly 350 km long and 200 km wide. On the surface, a huge tidal-wave or Tsunami screamed northwards, taking the tops of the volcanic vents, or pipes, with it. It is reported by Professor Roger Gibson of the University of the Witwatersrand as having an impact equalling approximately 400,000 megatons of TNT. However, these were minor reefs, and today it is the general consensus that credit for the discovery of the main gold reef must be attributed to George Harrison, whose findings on the farm Langlaagte were made in July 1886, either through accident or systematic prospecting. Discovery of the Gold in 1884 The first recorded discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand was made by Jan Gerrit Bantjes in June 1884, on the farm Vogelstruisfontein, and was followed soon thereafter, in September, by the Struben brothers who uncovered the Confidence Reef on the farm Wilgespruit, near present-day Roodepoort. However Randjeslaagte, the site of present-day central Johannesburg, was not declared until 4 October 1886, and its village was only officially named ‘Johannesburg’ for the first time the previous day, 3 October 1886. And again under tremendous heat, this split into Iron Pyrite and water. The discovery of gold rapidly attracted people to the area, making necessary a name and governmental organisation for the area. So over the years the layers built up, one on top of another. That the impact caused the lake, or multi-layered swamp, to distort is obvious. This also means that animal-drawn transport was also subject to seasonal shortages of fodder along its routes of travel, sometimes leading to long delays in the delivery of much needed mining equipment. Another theory became popular, that the gold had come up in volcanic activity, the volcanoes being eroded away over time, and releasing gold rich rock into an inland sea. 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