A history of mining in South Africa (NA)

A history of mining in South Africa. M ining in South Africa has been a contentious issue since 15-year-old Erasmus Stephanus Jacobs discovered South Africa's first diamond, the Eureka, in Hopetown in 1867. It kickstarted what historians call the Mineral Revolution, which made few European opportunists wealthy beyond measure, and saw …

Why did many more diamond miners than gold miners die in South Africa

2.1. Source of Data. The bibliography of the monograph Black October: the impact of the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 on South Africa by Prof H Phillips was used to identify published and unpublished reports written in the immediate aftermath of the 1918 pandemic. 5 Detailed reports from De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd 6 and the official government …

Diamond History and Lore

By 1900, De Beers, through its mines in South Africa, controlled an estimated 90 percent of the world's production of rough diamonds. The South African sources affected many segments of the diamond industry. This was especially true as diamond mining moved from the surface to farther underground.

Find out more about gold and diamond mining in South Africa in …

These two countries that time were under control of the British Government as colony. The gold and diamond companies were controlled by Britisher. The miners were people from India, South Asia and Africa. People in Africa were compelled for working as labourers in mines. Examine the role of technology during the 19th century with example.

Find out more about gold and diamond mining in south africa in the 19th

Diamond and gold production are now well down from their peaks, though South Africa is still number 5 in gold[3] but remains a cornucopia of mineral riches. It is the world's largest producer[4] of chrome, manganese, platinum, vanadium and vermiculite. It is the second largest producer[4] of ilmenite, palladium, rutile and zirconium.

History of Diamonds | Cape Town Diamond Museum

The story of diamonds in South Africa begins between December 1866 and February 1867 when 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs found a transparent rock on his father's farm, on the south bank of the Orange River. Over the next few years, South Africa yielded more diamonds than India had in over 2,000 years.

Discovery of the Gold in 1884 | South African History Online

By then 14 mines and 93 stamps were in operation, with a total annual output of 19,080 oz of gold. By the end of the following year, in 1888, the number of companies had dropped …

Grade 8

The Mineral Revolution in South Africa started with the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley in 1867, and intensified with the discovery of deep-level gold on …

Blood Diamonds — A South African History | by Lee Ndaba80

During much of the 20th century, despite generating great wealth for the mines, mine owners paid black workers much less than a living wage, and "…in real terms, migrant workers on the gold ...

Indigenous Gold Mining in Southern Africa: A Review

popo region (Liesegang 1977). In the 17th century, Barreto recorded gold mining in Manyika, and radiocarbon dates and dateable trade items found in archaeological mines in Zimbabwe indicate mining into the 19th century (Swan 1994:123-124). This is not surprising, because informal gold mining still takes place in Zimbabwe, in ways that

Diamonds: A History

The earliest diamond-cutting industry is believed to have been in Venice, a trade capital, starting sometime after 1330. Diamond cutting may have arrived in Paris by the late 14th century. By the ...

Colonial legacy of mining pioneers poses a dilemma for South …

The Portuguese set foot in South Africa in the 15th century, ... hidden diamonds or the Witwatersrand's entombed gold. Diamonds were only discovered in 1867 at Kimberley, and, 19 years later ...

Mining in SA

Coal mining's advent in South Africa can best be traced to the start of gold mining in the late 19 th century, ... Diamonds. While diamond mining has been taking in place in South Africa for almost a century …

Untapped Riches: Exploring the Gold and Diamond Mining Surge …

The 19th century witnessed a remarkable boom in South Africa's mining industry, particularly in the extraction of gold and diamonds. This period marked a significant …

Minerals and Mining in South Africa | SpringerLink

Mining in southern Africa has a long pre-colonial history. Haematite mining in Swaziland can be traced back more than 40,000 years, iron smelting dates from 400 …

Diamond exploration and mining in southern Africa: …

This situation started to change shortly after the turn of the 19th century when the Premier Mine at Cullinan, east of Pretoria, came into production. Kimberlites had been discovered in 1897 at Rayton to the south, just …

IN AFRICA: PART I

19th-century periodicals is often not as high as in recent ones, in that there was less opportunity for on- ... ("Diamond mining," July 16, 1867) as a farm named "De Kallz." That article stated that Mr. ... quently, most of the major mines-in South Africa were located in the area between the Oraiige and Vaal Rivers. Note thai the. Kimbarley-

History of mining in South Africa

The first diamonds were uncovered at the site of the Big Hole in 1871. Until the mine's closure in 1914, up to 50,000 miners excavated the deepest hole ever dug by hand, extending 215 metres underground. While the mine would yield 2,720kg of diamonds and help establish the De Beers mining company, which remains a major industry player …

Discovery of the Gold in 1884 | South African History Online

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.

Brief history of gold mining in South Africa

Separation of up to 96% pure gold was achieved which led to an investment boom as larger gold mines were opened up 1894 Three gold mines established the Rand Mutual Assurance Company, a world pioneer in …

19th century

The Kimberley diamond mine, one of the richest in the world, was discovered in 1871, setting off a rush by hopeful miners. In The South African Diamond Fields, and a Journey to the Mines the author describes the process of claiming plots of land by individual miners:. The Diggers' Committee, an influential elective body, had made it a …

The Origins of Forced Labor in the Witwatersrand

THE ORIGINS OF the forced labor system in the Witwatersrand, South Africa, can be traced back to the opening up of intensive gold mining in this region during the 1880s. For almost a century since then, forced labor in the mining industries of the Witwatersrand has characterized the South African economy.

History of Diamonds | Cape Town Diamond Museum

Diamond Mining | Famous Diamonds | Diamonds Through The Ages. The story of diamonds in South Africa begins between December 1866 and February 1867 when 15 …

Historical Reading: The Diamond Fields of South Africa: Part 2 …

The De Beers Kimberlite Pipe – A Historic South African Diamond Mine, C.R. Clement, J.W. Harris, D.N. Robinson, and J.B. Hawthorne, "Mineral Deposits of South Africa", pp. 2193-2214 (1986). The authors describe the one of the main mines near Kimberley which, since its discovery in 1871, has produced approximately 25 million …

A story of South Africa: Mining, Migration, Misery

Back in the mid-1970s when this writer first came to South Africa to work, one of the things that seemed mandatory to do was to visit some of the country's famous – or infamous – diamond and ...

European and African interaction in the 19th century

Southern Africa - European and African interaction in the 19th century: By the time the Cape changed hands during the Napoleonic Wars, humanitarians were vigorously campaigning against slavery, and in 1807 they succeeded in persuading Britain to abolish the trade; British antislavery ships soon patrolled the western coast of Africa. Ivory …

Gold in South Africa: Lessons from the Apartheid Era

This chapter considers gold at its most recent historical epi-centre—i.e. South Africa during the apartheid era. For over 130 years gold in Africa has been synonymous with the Witwatersrand which has produced 40% of the gold that was ever mined. 1 From 1887 until 2018 1.7 billion ounces of gold were extracted from the South …

Kimberley Mine Photos and Premium High Res Pictures

The Kimberley diamond mines in South Africa, to which thousands flocked in the 1870's after the discovery of diamonds on the nearby De Beers farm. ... antique photo: gold mining industry in south africa - kimberley mine stock illustrations. ... antique photograph of kimberley diamond mines (kimberley, south africa)-19th century. - kimberley ...

Grade 8

The Indian Mineworkers Strike in 1913 Image source. A form of resistance included to look for better jobs. After the South African War (1899-1902), thousands of African workers boycotted the gold mines because wages had dropped. They tried to find jobs on the railways and in the towns instead.

South Africa

Diamonds, gold, and imperialist intervention (1870–1902) South Africa experienced a transformation between 1870, when the diamond rush to Kimberley began, and 1902, when the South African War ended. Midway between these dates, in 1886, the world's largest goldfields were discovered on the Witwatersrand.

Who Controlled The Gold And Diamond Companies In South Africa

From the late 19th century until the early 21st century, South African gold and diamond companies were largely controlled by a few white-owned conglomerates. These conglomerates, such as De Beers, Anglo American, and Consolidated Mines, dominated the industry by owning and operating mines throughout the country.

A history of mining in South Africa (ZA)

F F ast forward to the late 20th century, and South African diamonds are still sought after, with an estimated R16-billion worth of the stones sold locally and internationally per year. Diamond miners were memorialised …

gold and diamond mining in south africa in 19 century

15-08-2018· Gold and diamond mining in south africa in the 19th century.Witwatersrand gold rush facts, discussion forum, and encyclopedia article.Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in australia, brazil, canada, south africa, and the united states, while smaller gold rushes tookrandlord is a term used to denote the entrepreneurs ...

South Africa: A Closer Look at the Diamond Industry

Within ten years, South African diamond mines were producing a million carats annually, and by the end of the 19 th century South Africa was the source of 90% of the world's diamonds. Over the years, diamond-mining expertise developed there was used to explore and mine diamond resources all over Southern Africa.

Diamond exploration and mining in southern Africa: Some …

In more than 150 years of mining history, southern Africa has consistently been the dominant producer of the world's diamond supply (McKechnie, 2019), producing some of the world's largest and ...

South Africa

The rapid growth of the gold-mining industry intensified processes started by the diamond boom: immigration, urbanization, capital investment, and labour migrancy. By 1899 the …

Brief history of diamond mining in South Africa

Brief history of gold mining in South Africa; Why gold mining matters; ... Brief history of diamond mining in South Africa. INCLUDING MAJOR EVENTS 1867 Diamonds are …

Diamonds

Diamond mining in South Africa. The underground mining and recovery of diamonds continues to this day in the vicinity of Kimberley, the site of the early main discoveries in the 19 th century. It is, however, on limited scale with a major focus on reprocessing old tailings dumps to recover diamonds left behind by older recovery processes.

History of Diamonds, Where Do Diamonds Come From

Diamonds are created when carbon is subjected to the extremely high pressures and temperatures found at the earth's lithosphere, which lies approximately 90-240 miles below the earth's surface. Until the 18th century, India was thought to be the only source of diamonds. When the Indian diamond mines were depleted, the quest for alternate ...