THE RAND MINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19965, 6 December 1926, Page 7

THE RAND MINES.

THEIR EBBING LIFE. PROGRESSIVE DEGENERATION.' (From Odb Own ibbespondbnt.) PIETERMARITZBURG, October 26. A grave warning aa to the attendant economic life of the W itwatersrand mines is given in an illuminating contribution to the Johannesburg Star by Mr J. H. Curie, who writes on the present position ot tne Rand and its future prospects. It is a warning that all interested m the subcontinent should take to, heart. Mr Lurie knows what he is writing about,. tie is the author of a number of books on mining, and he was mining editor of the Star so long as 30 years ago. And what is the verdict? Mr Curie says it is no exaggeration to say that within 15 years the Rand will be but a shell of its former self 1 And what then ? This vital question should engage the urgent attention of the white people of South Africa, buL i lear it is engaging the attention of but a small minority. But, as each year passes by, the subject will become more clamant and insistent. The earlier the better. Mr Lurie continues: “The mines are not actually being worked out; they are being picked for their richer ore. The conditions to-day are such that ore worth 12s to lbs a ton can rarely be worked without loss; and very many millions of tons of this value, practically developed, are being left behind. Looking forward, let us say to the year 1840, it will be possible then to reckon up far more than 100,000,000 tons of this value, left behind in the closed down mines. The South African community of those days, which will be so exceptionally dependent upon this goldfield, will implore these mines to reopen. The Government, in desperate strait for revenue, will offer them all sorts of rebatoments; but it will be too late. ... , “The mines will be full ot water, the timbers will have rotted, and the workings fallen in; the present fine organisations too —which are the best of any mines in the world—will have been dispersed; and South Africa will realise that its asset has cost it no less than £100,000,000.’ NEW DISCOVERIES. ' As to the new discoveries, Mr Curie is, on the whole, hopeful, if," he says, “we envisage the Greater Rand with its blanket beds stretching to Kerksdorp, turning through the Free State, and linking up with the Far East basin at Heidelberg, who can say that so vast a goldfield is nearing the end? It is true the outlaying areas have mostly been disappointing; but it is also true that thev ha 3 never been consistently explored. Between Potchefstrom and Randfontein for some 60 miles the main reef series lies rather deep under the dolomite; but there is reason to think that it carries payable values. “This stretch of 60 miles cannot languish for ever. In a few years the Government, finding its revenue from the Rand fast declining, will surely decide to bore this area, and even to sink a shaft to the reef to test the water problem. Half a million snent along this stretch would be well .justified. From Randfontein to Boksburg, some 50 nn’les, the main reef series has been invariably profitable. In the Far East basin it is again profitable; but between these i« a seven or eight mile stretch, colloquially spoken of as the Boksburg gap, which has never lieen nrofitable, and is Iving to-day completely dereleet."