Pieter Jacobs Marais reports discovery of gold

Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Pieter Jacobs Marais reports discovery of gold

Pieter Jacobs Marais reports his discovery of alluvial gold in the Jukskei River on B.J. Liebenberg's farm, Bultfontein, in 1853. The site was just north of the present Sandton. Though Marais thought that he was the first person to discover gold in this area, Johannesburg history proved him wrong. Allegedly Carel Kruger, who was hunting in the area, had discovered gold in 1834, while John Henry Davis, an English geologist, prospected around Krugersdorp in 1852, where his effort was apparently met with some success. The discovery of the Witwatersrand Main Reef by the two brothers H.W. and F.P.T. Struben in 1886, led to the birth of Johannesburg.

How we know this

01HighBeam Research,History of Johannesburg,Available at www.highbeam.com [Accessed: 07 October 2013] Potgieter, D.J. et al. (eds)(1970). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Cape Town: NASOU, vol. 5, p. 266.

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Pieter Jacobs Marais reports discovery of gold. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0010987

South African History Online (2011) 'Pieter Jacobs Marais reports discovery of gold', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0010987 (Accessed: 10 November 2026).

South African History Online, Pieter Jacobs Marais reports discovery of gold [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0010987, (accessed 10 November 2026).

"Pieter Jacobs Marais reports discovery of gold." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0010987. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

South African History Online. "Pieter Jacobs Marais reports discovery of gold." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0010987.