EXCURSION •
GIYANI – POTENTIAL FOR RESUSCITATION ?
The historic Giyani Greenstone Goldfield has been struggling to regain its former attraction . Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp took a tour of the area to see what remains of the old mining operations and what the future may hold .
The Giyani Greenstone goldfield ( formerly the Sutherland goldfield ) is located in the far north of the Limpopo province , north of the town of Giyani from where its new name hails . The rolling hills and waving brown grass along with the Mopani trees hide the bustle that once was a very active gold mining region .
The Sutherland goldfield was discovered during the settlement and development of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek ( ZAR ) by gold prospectors as they criss-crossed the country in search of riches . This led to the development of boom-and-bust gold rush towns along the Eastern Escarpment , all the way up to the Limpopo Valley and into the then Rhodesia ( now Zimbabwe ). The establishment of the town of Bend supported the mining operations in the Sutherland goldfield . Various small mines were established with some prospects amounting to no more than a couple of trenches or exploration pits and shafts . A number of factors led to the demise of the Sutherland goldfield – the highly erratic mineralisation of gold which is characteristic of greenstone gold deposits , along with the refractory nature of the mineralisation , the presence of malaria in the area and the final nail in the coffin was the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War .
Walking through the fields , small remnants of the mining activities and foundations of buildings can still be found . The remainder have been swallowed up by nature , hiding the potential wealth of gold .
Later geopolitical shifts resulted in the re-establishment of some of the more lucrative mines , such as the increase in the gold price and the drive of the South African government to create work opportunities and industries in the newly established selfgoverning homelands of Venda and Gazankulu . These marginal mines could be operated with government support – shafts were sunk , processing facilities constructed and the countryside became dotted with rock dumps and tailings dams . The end of the homelands and self-governing territories also spelled the end of these mining operations . Most of the infrastructure was stripped away and today a visit to these sites reveals little more than the remnants of the vertical shafts , the open pit excavations and tailings facilities that still remain on site .
The area has also not attracted ASM ( Artisanal and Small-scale Mining ) since the closure of the mines , with very few artisanal operations in the area . Some of the historic mines have been fenced off and are held in private ownership . The majority of the
The rolling hills and waving brown grass along with the Mopani trees hide the bustle that once was a very active gold mining region .
All images Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp www . africanmining . co . za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • June 2023 • 21