AFRICAN GOLD

Evening Post, Issue 36, 12 February 1935, Page 16

AFRICAN GOLD

THE WITWATERSRAND

EFFECT OF PRODUCTION

-- Through abandoning the gold standard the Union of South Africa had been enabled to place herself in a strong financial position, Mr. Nathaniel Malcolm stated, when interviewed in recently. The value of the goid produced had now reached £70,000,000, and the mining is helping to assist the farming community, which is having a bad time through drought and the countless other pitfalls that endanger the man on the land "in Africa. Mr. Malcolm is a graduate of the Otago School of Mines. He served with the New Zealand Forces during the war and went to South Africa in 1922, where he secured a position and is now manager of the Rustenburg Platinum Mines. ' In an interview with an "Otago Daily. Times" reporter, he stated that," through the abandonment of the gold standard, the Union was in a,stronger financial position today than ever! it -had been, ■ and the Government was last year able I to allocate from the mines* about | £5,000,000 for the relief of farmers, whose condition through droughts, locusts, pests, disease, and the count-1 . less other/pitfalls that beset the South African farmer was a parlous one. Gold was the life blood of the Union, and I reefs that were never payable before were now yielding tremendous; prbfits.' The abandonment of. the gold standard I meant an increase of about £30,000,000 per year -in gold production, making " the total production over £70,000,000. This had resulted in a great deal • more employment, and^today there " were rougMy 26,000 Europeans and 260.000 natives working on the Wit-1 .ivatersrand, representing a wages bill -of £9,000,000 for the Europeans and £8,000,000 for the natives, who' were, paid wages less than £3 per month, ' and their keep. The Jew stores reaped' . a tremendous harvest from the natives, ."selling them cheap; and . gaudy blankets and '"kaffir truck" at several hun-' dred per cent, profit. In 2933 a new company was formed, , to exploit the possibilities of a duplication of the Witwatersrand' series, considerably to the.east of the presentday mines. This area was being actively exploited by bore holes, and on the result of these would depend the possible opening lip of a large new area suggesting an extension of the veet for a'further sixty miles. , A BUILDING BOOM. Mi. Malcolm states that on account of this boom in mining "there is in Johannesburg an unprecedented building' boom, and the outline of the city is constantly changing, new skyscrapers springing up everywhere and .reminding visitors of New York. Such was the demand for cement for mining and building purposes that at one time' in the latter part of last year it was. unprocurable. Skilled workmen in the building trade are in keen ' demand and high wages are being paid. The main reef is actually a hard, pebbly seam outcropping at Jeppestown and.dipping at a sharp angle into the ground so that in places it is being worked at 6000 -to 8000 feet.: It varies in.width from a few inches in Some shafts to 20ft in others, and the average gold content is five*pennyweights per ton. In some places, however, it; is as rich as two ounces to the ton, and specimens of the reef appear as if gold had been painted on it with a fine brush. At Randfontein, on the West Rand, the reef has been followed to a depth of, 6000 fe.et, but in the past year or two it was discovered that it had flattened out and was no longer dipmrig—a fact which simplified working to a great extent and increased production,, enormously. The Rustenburg Platinum Mines, of which Mr. Malcolm is the manager, lie 85 miles from Johannesburg, in a northwesterly direction and in.the heart of! ?i great citrus-growing district. The Merensky reef, which contains platin-| oids, lies in a bed of norite and has been traced for some 130 miles in that district. A large, uprto-date plant is I actively encaced in mining and production, and the mineral is shipped to' T/ondon for treatment and marketing. There are apnroximately SO white, emnloyees and 1200 natives employed in Ihis platinum industry/ which is at 1 nresent the only producing mino in South Africa.