Includes map of the Klerksdorp and Heidelberg district and key and supplementary map showing the sections Witwatersrand's golf fields. Part 1, Great Deposits – Grasberg Part 3 – Mining and Engineering, Great Deposits – Slovakia’s Banská Štiavnica Mining District, John Reed’s Doorstop: America’s First Gold Rush was Not in California, CuEq Metal Equivalent Calculator for Mining Results, Cigar Lake Mine: the World’s Largest Uranium Producer, Bathurst Mining Camp: One of the World’s Great Base Metal Districts, Geology of the PGE Deposits in the Bushveld Complex, South Africa, Emerald Heart of Africa: The Kagem Mine, Kafubu Mining Area, Zambia. Largest Gold Deposits in the World – Witwatersrand Gold Fields. It occurs across four provinces in South Africa.  The conglomerates are rich in pyrite (iron sulfide) pebbles and uraninite (uranium oxide) pointing to an anoxic atmosphere. In 1886, after years of rumors, legends, and smaller discoveries, it was definitively established that there was a huge, rich deposit of gold under the Witwatersrand, a rocky ridge in South Africa. See the results of your search on the right side. As the Witswatersrand has accumulated a massive literature of studies going back some 100 years the following are a mere sample. The map gives an overview of the ethnic, social and economic differentiation in the Witwatersrand Region, with the metropolis of Johannesburg at its heart. All of the data can be downloaded for further use and analysis. Evidence for this is the dendritic appearance of some of the gold nuggets, and lack of gold in the proposed source rock preserved in the placer deposits. It is estimated the 40% of all of the gold ever mined has come out of the Basin. As time passed, the tents disappeared and people began to build houses, offices and shops. The first discovery of gold in the region is recorded as being in 1852 in the Pardekraal farm by J.H. The project is adjacent to the Venterspost underground mine to the south and the Cooke 1 and 2 mines previously operated by Sibanye-Stillwater to the East. The collection contains record books originating from the former gold mines Robinson Deep Gold Mining Company, Luipaardsvlei Estate and Gold Mining Company, Rietfontein Consolidated Mines and few unidentified. The site was first discovered in 1932 by Dr. R. Krahmann, West Witwatersrand Areas Ltd. Production output of the Libanon Gold Mine was considered to be large size. Although a rare exploration target, junior exploration companies Novo Resources and Inventus Mining have paleoplacers related projects. Schematic illustration of the geotectonic environments of formation for gold-bearing ore deposits. The Witwatersrand Supergroup contains more uranium than gold and the Witwatersrand gold mines are in fact also uranium mines. With photos, facts, and figures about its impact on the growth of the region, the history of precious metals in the area, and the people that have mined the gold from the ground, even up to today. These gold fields dominated production throughout the twentieth century, but production peaked at … Ancient river systems feeding into the basin eroded the surrounding highlands and over a period of about 260 million years, deposited layers of quartz pebble conglomerates, sandstones and shales. To accompany the handbook, The Mineral Resources of the Union of South Africa" 1959. Witwatersrand Gold Mining Company Limited is a former South African gold mining company. This pushed up a core area but pulled the surrounding crust down and protected the basin from erosion. o How gold is mined. Check flight prices and hotel availability for your visit. Many deposits are either deeply buried or have been mined to the point that only the deeper deposits remain. Goldmann's map, Witwatersrand gold fields : S.A.R. . Builders were very busy. With Oil and Gas his experience is primarily in the Madison, Bakken and Nisku Petroleum systems of Southern Alberta/ Northern Montana. The scarp, primarily formed of hard, erosion resistant quartzite sedimentary rocks, as well as banded iron-stones and marine lava deposits interspersed with relatively softer rocks, nestles a large number of waterfalls. ”¢ Deep-level gold mining on the Witwatersrand 1886 onwards - Why gold is valuable - The discovery and mining of deep level gold on the Witwatersrand. Andrew's experience covers all aspects of the resource venture capital from project evaluation, IPO's, fundraising, investor relations, cartography, technical report writing, exploration program design, with an applied expertise in mineral exploration in porphyry copper deposits, Athabasca unconformity uranium deposits, RIRG's (reduced intrusive related gold) deposits and layered mafic intrusion Ni-Cu-PGM deposits. Production does not come easy though. © Copyright 2021, GEOLOGYFORINVESTORS.COM All Rights Reserved, Largest Gold Deposits in the World – Witwatersrand Gold Fields, Cerro Rico: The Greatest of the Great. At a first glance, the Witwatersrand basin, the largest known gold resource on our planet, is not automatically related to ocean research.  3D edge detection seismic attributes used to map potential conduits for water and methane in deep gold mines in the Witwatersrand basin, South Africa Musa S. D. Manzi1, Raymond J. Durrheim2, Kim A. Get directions, maps, and traffic for Witwatersrand Gold Mining, Gauteng. Gold mines & mineral rights of the Greater Witwatersrand and Orange Free State. The basin was then overlain by the “Ventersdorp and Transvaal supergroups” (see map below) which buried the gold-bearing sequence under 23 kilometres of sediments and volcanic rocks. Extensive debate still exists on the source of gold mineralization. It is the presence of these spectacular waterfalls that has given the scarp its … The region is at the centre of South African gold mining, which has permanently marked the man-made landscape with its many spoil heaps and pits. Introduction The gold fields of the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa are, by a landslide, the largest single gold producing… 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). Delfstofkaart van die Unie van Suid-Afrika." Initial production took place in 1940 and overall output was considered to be medium size. Davis, an English miner. The Witwatersrand Basin is approximatly 350 km long and 200 km wide. Popular theories include hydrothermal, placer and biological precipitation theories. o Conditions underground. These are currently being re-processed to extract the remaining gold. A brief overview of the history and development of Witwatersrand, the famous gold mine of South Africa.  The gold mines in this area are possibly the deepest mines in the world (mining operations at 3600 m and exploration core-drilling up to 4600m). +Scope and urgency of the problem (cont.) The Witwatersrand plateau consists of a 5000-to-7000-metre-thick (3.1–4.3 mi) layer of mainly sedimentary rocks laid down over a period of about 260 million years, starting approximately 2.97 billion years ago.  The consolidated Gold Fields of south Africa, Limited 1 : 60000 Shafts go down some 3,900 meters be… Production does not come easy though. In this hypothesis, gold was “caught” and precipitated out in microbial mats as it was transported by the rivers. General map of the witwatersrand gold fields. general location on regional map) Given that the Witwatersrand gold deposits outcrop over a very wide area either side of Johannesburg the goldfield is commonly divided into three districts; namely Central, Eastern and Western. These mining towns form a form a curve on the map. The head frame of the Tau Tona Mine is the lone entrance to over 500 miles of tunnels. Accompanied by walking stick in which map was attached to. Witwatersrand goldfield, South Africa : The Witwatersrand is a large basin of metamorphosed conglomerates that forms the greatest goldfield in the world. in American Scientist “The Origin of Gold in South Africa” Nov 2003 (, Laurence J. Robb and F. Michael Meyer “The Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa: Geological framework and mineralization processes” from Ore Geology Reviews June 1995 (, Horscroft et al. Its name means “Ridge of White Waters.” The highland, which forms the watershed between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers, is about 62 miles (100 km) long and 23 miles (37 km) wide; its average elevation is about 5,600 You can scroll down to find more maps of this location. / Shows land ownership of gold fields. USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). [Pretoria] : Department of Mines, Union of South Africa. Union of South Africa. Legends in English and Afrikaans. Share on o The Randlords and the formation of the Chamber of Mines. A foreland basin is … However neither have come close to the size of the Witwatersrand. Metal Mining in Peru – The Emergence of a Global Giant? The gold deposits located in this basin make up the largest known concentration of gold ..... 5 3. Uranium was originally mined as a by-product of the gold mining industry in Gauteng and the West Rand (Von Backström, 1976). Other mining towns sprang up as well. Using the map tool, users can zoom in to obtain reports and data on past and present mines, mine prospects, and processing plants. The placer model proposes the gold deposited by an ancient river systems that eroded it from surrounding greenstone belts. The Company plans to transition to a mid-tier gold producer from its flagship project in the Central Rand Goldfield of South Africa, the Witwatersrand … Evidence for this comes from the facts that the gold is older than the host rock, the gold is found almost exclusively in the conglomerates and some gold shows a flattened, circular appearance, indicative of water transport. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Resources Data System catalogs information about mineral resources around the United States and the world. This sea was formed approximately 3 billion years ago after the collision between the Zimbabwe and Kaapvaal cratons. The gold fields of the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa are, by a landslide, the largest single gold producing district in the world. Old Gold: An Introduction to Archean Greenstone Belts, SEDEX: The Biggest Lead and Zinc Deposits in the World, Decoding the JORC Code: An Overview for Investors, Adapting Petroleum Geophysics for Mineral Exploration, Brian F. Windley “The Evolving Continents” 3rd edition 1995. It has an average elevation of around 5,600 feet. Finally, the area was preserved when a massive meteorite hit and formed the Vredefort dome. The Witwatersrand gold fields of South Africa account for more than a third of the world's total gold production since mining started there in 1886: 48,000 t Au. Novo Resources is working on paleoplacer projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, while Inventus has a project in the Huronian Basin near Sudbury, Canada. Shafts go down some 3,900 meters below the surface, where temperatures reach 60° Celcius (140° F) and deadly rockfalls are common. He sold £600 of gold to the Transvaal Treasury and was subsequently ordered to leave the country. The entire series of rocks, known as the "Witwatersrand Supergroup," consists of very hard erosion resistant quartzites, banded ironstones and some marine lava deposits, interspersed with softer, more easily eroded tillites, mudstones and conglomerates.  Though there were smaller mining operations in the region, it wasn’t until 1884 and the subsequent 1886 discovery at Langlaagte that the Witwatersrand gold rush got under way in ea… There is one known shaft. One side effect of early and very long term mining are the huge tailing piles from the old mines. Andrew Watson is the principal of Anterrra Consulting, which provides strategic advice, project generation, investor relations services and digital data management services to clients in Mining, Junior Exploration and Oil and Gas. Mine operations consist of 2 distinct underground workings. Panel title. 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. Wall map. The Libanon Gold Mine is in Gauteng, South Africa. The evidence for this is the presence of extremely rich gold grades associated with carbonaceous horizons, the varying richness of the conglomerate beds and the complex suite of elements co-deposited with the gold. entworfen und gezeichnet von C. F. Weiland. Witwatersrand, ridge of gold-bearing rock mostly in Gauteng province, South Africa. Mine operations consist of underground workings. Contact Now! The hydrothermal model proposes that gold entered the basin via the permeable conglomerate horizons via hydrothermal activity and was precipitated out, around the pyrite and uranium. A. Hein1, and Nick King3 ABSTRACT Inrushes of ground water and the ignition of flammable gases pose risks to workers in deep South African gold mines. Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources Phone and Map of Address: 70 Fox St, Marshalltown, Gauteng, 2001, South Africa, Johannesburg, Business Reviews, Consumer Complaints and Ratings for Gold Mines in Johannesburg.  Special map accompanying Richmond's South African All Mining Year Book illustrating the location of Mines, Quarries and Works. Similar Witwatersrand type deposits have been found such as the Tarkwa Gold Fields in Ghana, Africa and the Jacobina Gold Deposit in Brazil. In mining terms, the Pilbara is synonymous with iron ore.It is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of seaborne ore and has played a large part in establishing the fortunes of the big miners BHP and Rio Tinto and in more recent times Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Fortescue.Famously, Lang Hancock and his partner Peter Wright discovered the massive iron ore deposits later called Hope Downs in 1952, although government geologist Harr… , Share Simplified geologic map of the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa. Located in South Africa, the Witwatersrand Basin represents the richest gold field ever discovered. Text on verso (English and Afrikaans) details unfolding events in a narrative titled: "Twenty-four Hours on a Witwatersrand Gold Mine." The mine is situated within the West Rand Goldfield of the Witwatersrand Gold Basin only 38km west of Johannesburg and 7.5km from the town of Randfontein. West Wits Mining (ASX:WWI) is an experienced gold exploration and development company focused on transforming world class mineral resources into gold. DWAF Water for Growth & Development Framework Ver 7, 2009: “present and immediate” threat in the central and western basins of the Witwatersrand mine systems that requires “urgent intervention” “As a consequence of the absence of operational pumping facilities, the Central Basin has flooded to within 900m of the surface, threatening the The actual gold deposits themselves are quite thin and the surrounding rock matrix is very hard. “Witwatersrand Metallogenesis: The Case For (Modified) Syngenesis” (. Col. ill. and maps of "Pretoria, 1:21,400" and "Johannesburg, 1:21,400" on verso. Get notified when we add new content at Geology for Investors.Subscribers get free access to our most recently published Knowledge Base article! The Witwatersrand Goldfields comprise the world’s biggest gold deposit, responsible for more than 40% of the gold ever mined on Earth. In: Goldfarb RJ, Nielsen RL (eds) Integrated methods for discovery: global exploration in the twenty-first century. Click here and draw a rectangle over the map to precisely define the search area. Narrow your search with advanced settings, such as Years (from/to), Fulltext, Publisher, etc. Techniques such as cyanidization, or the removal and concentration of gold with cyanide was developed in response to the difficulties encountered by 19th century miners in the Witwatersrand. These instructions will show you how to find historical maps online. Mineral Map of the Union of South Africa. Frimmel HE, Minter WEL (2002) Recent developments concerning the geological history and genesis of the Witwatersrand gold deposits, South Africa. Layers of sedimentary rock in the Witwatersrand show that is was once a shallow sea. There are a … A map showing the distribution of coal and Witwatersrand Basin gold deposits. The Witwatersrand Nigel Gold Mine is a underground mining operation. Make sense of mining company investments. As of yet there is no consensus, but further research will yield new insights into this fascinating phenomena. The Witwatersrand Nigel Gold Mine is near Springs, South Africa. A final hypothesis is of bio-chemical precipitation. As mentioned, the deposits are can be very, very deep. Basin infilling resulted in more than 11 kilometers of sedimentary rocks and some volcanic rocks. This curve is called the Witwatersrand, the Rand for short. 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). Sign Up for the Precious Metals Digest Sign Up ... Area map, Witwatersrand / Relief shown by spot heights. 2. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain), Radefeld, Carl Christian Franz, 1788-1874. To view a schematic overview of each of these zones click the appropriate map Witwatersrand is a picturesque, 35-mile long escarpment in the Guateng Province of South Africa. Still, they support many of the largest gold companies in the world including Harmony, Sibanye, Goldfields, and AngloGold-Ashanti. The Company ceased mining operations and is in the process of mine closure. The gold fields of the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa are, by a landslide, the largest single gold producing district in the world. Chapters 19, 21 (Book), Kirk et al. Another find by Pieter Jacob Marais was recorded in 1853 on the Jukskei River, but was subject to similar secrecy. The oldest rocks (laid down 2.97 billion years … The surface, where temperatures reach 60° Celcius ( 140° F ) and deadly rockfalls are common, 1976.. Witwatersrand show that is was once a shallow sea formation of the Union of Africa... 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