Mining in focus
south by glaciers, and became concentrated
in river gravels by melt water. The mining of
this gold was dramatised in the recent TV
series Gold Rush. The same gold concentrating
processes appear to have happened in South
Africa, but many millions of years earlier.
A lot of gold is left in the age-old source
rocks in the northern parts of South Africa,
and it is possible that source rocks in the far
north, which supplied some of the gold, no
longer exist, having been transported away
by earth movements. According to Professor
McCarthy’s theory, the glaciers moved from
the north and north-west to the south and
spread alluvial gold everywhere. There might
even be more gold in the south than in the
north, but the theory, of course, remains
completely untested. Nobody has ever done
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any drilling in the Karoo and very little
on the potentially shallow deposits on the
southern edge of the Witwatersrand Basin.
But according to Professor McCarthy, these
deposits will be discovered.
“It is a slow, progressive effort to gather
information and interpret it. Eventually,
gold will be found; it is just a question of
sentiment, commitment, and the motivation
to keep trying. Under the present mining
regulations in South Africa, however, I
fear that it might take a long time
before the theory is tested,”
says Professor
McCarthy.
A lack of
funding,
regulatory and political constraints, and
rising costs have prevented exploration
companies from taking on the risk and
venturing into unknown territory. We
haven’t seen many drill rigs searching for
gold deposits in the Karoo lately. It’s about
time we do. For once, we should listen to
and believe in geologists.
Gold mining is not a sunset industry in
South Africa; in fact, its rebirth might be
imminent.
MAY 2019 MINING MIRROR [27]