The
existence of gold-bearing reefs in both these areas had long been
known, and, in fact, there had been a considerable degree of activity
devoted to the exploitation in both cases. The Klerksdorp area began to
be exploited almost at the same time as the Witwatersrand proper; this
boom collapsed in the early nineties, when the Rand also went through a
period of deep depression,29 but there was a revival, and
even in 1930 the area was producing 17,000 ounces of gold; the
Government Mining Engineer's report for that year lists nine
enterprises as operating: they obviously were on a small scale. In 1932
the output was only 15,700 ounces.
Among
the companies holding important interests in the area west of
Randfontein (General Mining and Finance and Johannesburg Consolidated
Investment being prominent holders) was the Western Rand Estates,
registered in the Transvaal on 4 April 1902, 'to prove the continuation
of the Randfontein or Main Reef Series'. It held an undivided interest
in farms amounting to 45,000 acres, and it had a half interest in
further farms amounting to 12,700 acres. The chairman in 1905 was Mr.
H. C. Hull, later to become closely associated with the Anglo American
Corporation group of interests. Previous to the formation of Western
Rand Estates boreholes had been put down by Mr. D. Pullinger (he and
his brother subsequently became directors of Western Rand Estates), and
values as high as 1659 inch-dwt were obtained. In the end the inflow of
water proved too great to handle, and Western Rand Estates was
liquidated. The property was acquired in 1926 by Messrs. J. Donaldson
and W. Carlis, who turned it over to Western Areas Limited, this
company continuing to hold the property at the time when a revival of
interest in the Far West Rand began.
The
news that New Consolidated Gold Fields—C. J. Rhodes's old company—had
acquired an option on Western Areas Limited 'broke' in September 1931,30 and naturally evoked great interest. In June 1932 it was announced that
drilling
operations are about to be begun by the Consolidated Gold Fields on the
property of the Western Areas, formerly the Western Rand Estates, over
which the Gold Fields hold a lengthy option. The Gold Fields engineers
and geologists have been engaged during the past eighteen months in an
29 The early history of the Klerksdorp gold-fields is described in G. A. Denny's The Klerksdorp gold fields (London, 1897), chapter I. For the de facto position in the area at that date, so far as mining companies are concerned, vide chapter VII. See also Jack Scott, 'The Klerksdorp gold fields' in 21 South African Journal of Economics (1953) for the later history.
30 South African Mining and Engineering Journal, 19 September 1931.
