Witwatersrand
Coordinates: 26°12′13″S 28°2′43″E / 26.20361°S 28.04528°E
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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 is 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.
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[edit] Gold mining
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 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) [1] deep in places. The South African currency was named after it. The reef's most northerly tip was discovered only a few kilometres from the present day town of Magaliesburg, at Blaauwbank, in 1874.
[edit] Urban areas
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.
[edit] History
The Witwatersrand is in the Transvaal, formerly an independent state settled by the Boers after the Great Trek. J. H. 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 (£457,000 in 2010 Pounds[2]) 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 Witwatersrand 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.
| Gold Production on the Witwatersrand 1898 to 1910[3]:134 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | No. of Mines |
Gold output (troy ounces) |
Value (GB£) | Relative 2010 value (GB£)[4] |
| 1898 | 77 | 4,295,608 | £15,141,376 | £6,910,000,000 |
| 1899 (Jan-Oct) | 85 | 3,946,545 | £14,046,686 | £6,300,000,000 |
| 1899 (Nov- 1901 Apr) | 12 | 574,043 | £2,024,278 | £908,000,000 |
| 1901 (May-Dec) | 12 | 238,994 | £1,014,687 | £441,000,000 |
| 1902 | 45 | 1,690,100 | £7,179,074 | £3,090,000,000 |
| 1903 | 56 | 2,859,482 | £12,146,307 | £5,220,000,000 |
| 1904 | 62 | 3,658,241 | £15,539,219 | £6,640,000,000 |
| 1905 | 68 | 4,706,433 | £19,991,658 | £8,490,000,000 |
| 1906 | 66 | 5,559,534 | £23,615,400 | £9,890,000,000 |
| 1907 | 68 | 6,220,227 | £26,421,837 | £10,800,000,000 |
| 1908 | 74 | 6,782,538 | £28,810,393 | £11,700,000,000 |
| 1909 | 72 | 7,039,136 | £29,900,359 | £12,200,000,000 |
| 1910 | 63 | 7,228,311 | £30,703,912 | £12,400,000,000 |
[edit] Further reading
- Breckenridge, Keith Derek (1995) An Age of Consent: law, discipline, and violence on the South African gold mines, 1910–1933. Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
- Cammack, Diana (1990) At the Eye of the Storm: the Witwatersrand and the Anglo-Boer war 1899–1902. London: James Currey
- Herd, Norman (1966) 1922: the revolt on the Rand. Johannesburg: Blue Crane Books
- Phillips, Ray E. (1938) The Bantu in the City: a study of cultural adjustment on the Witwatersrand. [Lovedale, Cape Province]: Lovedale Press (Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, [1937]; bibliog. refs. p. 394–406); R. E. Phillips was a member of the American Zulu Mission, Johannesburg)
- Stals, E. L. P. (ed.) (1978) Afrikaners in die Goudstad: deel 1, 1886–1924; deel 2, 1924–1961. Pretoria: HAUM, 1978, 1986
[edit] References
- ^ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071106-africa-mine.html
- ^ Measuring Worth, Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount - average earnings, retrieved on the 18/10/2010
- ^ Yap, Melanie; Leong Man, Dainne (1996). Colour, Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. pp. 510. ISBN 962 209 423 6.
- ^ Measuring Worth, Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount - average earnings, retrieved on the 27/01/2011
