EXCURSION •
Walking through the fields , small remnants of the mining activities and foundations of buildings can still be found .
historic mines have , however , reverted back to the South African government as custodian and now reside under the Limpopo Development corporation ( LimDev ) established to develop the mining potential of the Limpopo province . Various attempts have been made over the last decade to re-establish some of the mining operations , with the old Fumani mine being the crown property in the region . To date , however , apart from a short-lived exploration project , the properties have not been able to attract investment to develop . The other large former mines were placed into the Giyani Gold portfolio but have since been reverted to the province and now form part of the Rock Island project .
The gold mineralisation is hosted in the Greenstone formations of the Giyani Greenstone Belt ( GGB ), which is 17km wide and has a strike length of 70km . The belt has an overall NE-trend , but to the west , the GGB splits into a northern Khavagari arm and a southern Lwaji arm separated by granitoid gneiss ( the Klein Letaba Gneiss ) and younger granite . The Lwaji arm has more or less the same trend as the main part of the belt , but the Khavagari arm has been rotated into an east-west orientation . The supracrustal rocks of the GGB have been subjected to amphibolite facies metamorphism . Peak metamorphism was followed by uplift and the influx of CO 2
-rich aqueous fluids . This rehydration event occurred during the exhumation of the Limpopo Complex along
The countryside has become dotted with tailings dams like the White Reefs tailings dump depicted here in the distance .
the Hout River Shear Zone ( HRSZ ) and was responsible for shearzone hosted alteration of the rocks in the GGB and the formation of the orogenic gold deposits .
The gold mineralisation is found in association with sulphidised zones , carbonate veins and associated with the banded ironstone formations ( BIF ) that occur in the area . Apart from gold , the area also contains previously economic mineralisation of magnesite . There are also a range of other sub-economic minerals and occurrences of gemstone that have largely been depleted , such as emerald .
Old infrastructure at Klein Letaba . A bygone shaft at Klein Letaba
Driving past these historic operations on the back roads to the Kruger National Park , one can only but wonder what life was like during the times these mines were active , and how it will potentially breathe life back into the region should an investor be found to resuscitate these operations . •
www . africanmining . co . za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • June 2023 • 23