Luli

Published March 31, 2011Updated October 15, 2015

Deep Level Mining

Only twenty years after the first mine was started at Langlaagte, gold had become the most important industry in South Africa, bringing much money into the country. Gold mining on the Rand created a revolution in mining methods, and changed South Africa in a very significant way. This section examines the nature and the needs of the Rand gold mines.

People have always treasured gold for its lasting beauty and usefulness. Thousands of years ago a Greek poet, Sappho, wrote about gold:

'Neither rust nor worms can spoil this metal. It has the power to excite the minds of men.'

Kings and traders sought after gold because it could be stored for years yet keep its value. It could also be divided into small units and used as coins. Eventually, gold coins became the standard form of money. Later, paper money was used, and the stores of gold were held by governments.

Gold therefore is important for many reasons and people will go to great trouble and expense to find it.

There are four points to remember about gold mining in South Africa, which help to explain the special needs of the mines. Let's deal with these points one by one:

Shaft Mining head

Fixed Price

Gold is like all other useful things that are bought and sold. It is the product of human labour. The more labour needed to produce gold, the more valuable it becomes. Governments can fix the price for a time. But as gold becomes more and more difficult to produce, the price eventually has to increase.

When gold was discovered on the Rand the price of gold was fixed and stayed that way for many years. This meant that the mine-owners could not charge more for the gold. To make profits, they had to cut the cost of producing the gold. We shall see later how they did this by forcing down the wages of the unskilled workers.

Deep-Level Mining

The early outcrop mine.The gold seemed to be near the surface of the ground.
In those days, gold was not difficult to mine especially if the prospector had many labourers to dig for him!

But soon, miners found that they had to dig deeper and deeper to find the gold - 100 metres, 500 metres, a kilometre underground and even deeper. This type of mining became known as deep-level mining.

Prospectors found that they needed special machines to get the gold that was so deep down - they needed ventilation to provide air and sometimes, when there was water underground,' they needed pumps.

They also realised that the stopes were dangerous. Special props had to be made to stop the stopes from caving in.

There were many problems, and they became worse as gold mining went deeper and deeper underground. We shall see later how the problems of deep-level mining were solved.

Low Grade Ore

The reef of gold that runs underground is very thin. It has been compared to a 'page in a very thick book of rock'. In South Africa, there is much less gold in each ton of ore than in other countries that mine gold.

The ore in South Africa, therefore, is poor in gold. It is known as low-grade ore

'An Endless Treasure of Gold'

At the same time, South Africa is very rich in gold, for the thin reef of gold so deep down under the Witwatersrand stretches for more than 300 miles. The reef stretches from Heidelberg in the east all the way across to Virginia.

This area produces most of the world's gold - and people could carry on mining for hundreds of years.

It is important to understand how gold is mined in South Africa, because the needs of gold mining changed South Africa in a very significant way.