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South Africa is unbelievably rich in minerals. Minerals like gold, diamonds, platinum and necessary basic metals like copper, tin, iron, lead and zinc make mining and the subsequent job creation, possible. The only other country with a similar variety of minerals and metals, is Russia.
the discovery of Gold and Diamonds in SA
By the middle of the nineteenth century Britain found the territories that she had colonized in South Africa to be an economical drawback. Droughts in the Cape Colony, fights in the Orange Free State with the Basutu, and weak rural markets in the old ZAR (Transvaal) made Britain decide to hand over the government of these territories by signing the Sand River Convention in 1852 with Transvaal and the Bloemfontein Convention in 1854 with the Orange Free State.
The discovering of gold in 1868 north of the Limpopo River, at first drew no attention, because in 1867 the first diamond was found near Hope Town. These alluvial diamonds were found in the silt near rivers. On both sides of the Vaal River more diamonds were found, which caused an influx of miners. The miners were unable to reach an agreement about their rights with President Pretorius, the leader of the OFS, and declared themselves an independent republic at Klipdrift.
During 1870 and 1871 diamonds were discovered further from the Vaal River, first at Dutoitspan (Kimberley) and later at Vooruitzicht. This became known as one of the biggest diamond discoveries in the world and miners from all over the world descended on the diamond fields. Conflict among the different claimants of the diamond bearing areas, the republics, colonies and tribal captains was unavoidable.
Although J.H. Davis had already discovered the first gold of the well-known Witwatersrand in 1852 on a farm near Krugersdorp, he was forced by the ZAR Government to keep quiet about it. Other gold discoveries were made, like the find by Walker and Harrison on the farm Langlaagte. Only in 1886 it became clear that this discovery was the important main reef of the Witwatersrand.
The town of Johannesburg developed on the farm Randjeslaagte. Transporters could no longer cope with taking people and goods to and from the mines, so railway lines were built. In 1892 Johannesburg was connected to Cape Town by rail; and in 1895 to Durban.
a) Write the words TIME-LINE and the topic of the time line, on top.
b) First ARRANGE the DATES in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.
c) Then WRITE down the DATES beneath one another.
d) Now FILL in the ACTIONS that corresponds to each date, next to the date. Make sure that every fact is complete.
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