EXCURSION •
AN EXCURSION TO THE HISTORIC BAKERVILLE DIAMOND FIELDS
In the grassfields of the Northwest lie the hidden remnants of the Bakerville diamond rush of the 1920s , which still piques some interest , writes Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp .
All images supplied Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp
Located north of the town of Lichtenburg in the North West province of South Africa , is the small hamlet of Bakerville . The scattered houses and dirt roads would not suggest that one of the larger diamond rushes of the 1920s occurred here , which was so extensive that it nearly collapsed the diamond market . The massive heaps of chert boulders and the massive dug out sinkholes , however , tell the tale of frantic diggings to find the hoard of alluvial diamonds , putting the western Transvaal – so named at the time – on the map .
Visiting a ghost town of sorts Driving up from Johannesburg on the N14 , and turning north through the agricultural town of Lichtenburg , travelling towards Zeerust , the only indication of activity in the Bakerville area is a rusted road sign indicating the local SASSA point . The houses in Bakerville still have the large Burger Erf sizes and are spaced far apart . The only evidence of any activity are children and dogs walking along the street or sitting in the winter sun to warm up a bit .
As one follows the road on the GPS to the points plotted , the flat horizon leaves you wondering if you are in the correct location , until suddenly the waste heaps loom up in front . Getting out of the car and navigating the small footpath leads to the massive excavation of the historic King ’ s Pothole and further away the Pienaar Pothole diamond mining sites .
Kings Pothole .
History It all started in December 1924 , during the construction of a cattle-dip by one Mr J A Voorendyk , where he discovered the first diamond . This led to the further discovery of diamonds on Elandsputte and the diamond rushes on Elandsputte in 1926 and Grasfontein in 1927 . In that year diamond production on the Lichtenburg diggings reached a peak when 2 100 861 carats of alluvial diamonds were produced from the diggings .
Historic mining of a gravel run .
Following the near depletion of the known sinkhole deposits , the mining in the Bakerville diamond field slowed down and ultimately stopped by the start of the Great Depression of the 1930s . There has been a short-lived renewal in interest in the area , following a report by the Geological Survey of South Africa in the 1980s , which indicated the potential for further discovery and development of diamond mining . During the late 2000s there was another flurry of exploration in the area .
The site of the cattle dip was declared a national monument and is open to the public .
Geology The Bakerville diamond deposit occurs in the Transvaal Supergroup Dolomite of the Lyttleton and Monte Christo Formations . In this location it consists of an irregular dolomite bedrock with chert and dolomite . The diamond alluvial runs are associated with the Welverdiend – Ruigtelaagte - Grasfontein run near Lichtenburg . The gravels occur as runs , representing an ancient braided drainage system running east to west and covering an extensive floodplain . The runs now form a positive topographic expression . This is due to the hard gravels protecting the underlying strata from being eroded , while the rest of the floodplain is denuded . The individual gravel runs are identifiable along the paleo-river extent for several kilometres , with an average width of 140m . The diamondiferous gravel runs tend to be about 3m in thickness .
The diamond-bearing gravels runs and patches on the alluvial deposit have potholes and large sinkholes which may extend to about 70m in depth . These karst formations are associated with positions of structural weaknesses or faulting . The potholes were either formed during or post the run deposition and contain gravels . The gravel within the potholes exhibits steep dips , and even overturns in places , indicating that solution subsidence was active both during and after deposition of the gravel . The pothole fill is normally a complex mixture of its own alluvial fill , together with collapsed material from the adjacent deposits , consisting of chert boulders and washed in later glacial deposit remnants . The diamond grades recorded in the potholes are therefore dependent not only on
www . africanmining . co . za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • October 2023 • 21