Limited
(not working); the Great Western Developing Company (Prop.) Limited
(situated on farm Elandslaagte No. 28 in the Vredefort district), and
the Great Western Mine.
South Africa's departure from the gold standard was soon to lead to a revolution in the Orange Free State situation.
♦ XVIII ♦
So
far as the Free State was concerned, the fundamental difficulty facing
the gold-mining industry, when the departure from the gold standard had
greatly increased the attractiveness of pioneering new mining ventures,
was the absence of adequate scientific data relating to the geology of
the area. In 1933, Anglo American Corporation had founded the Western
Reefs Exploration and Development Company Limited, which brought mining
enterprise to the north bank of the Vaal River, to the immediate south
and south-west of Klerksdorp. But it took time to prove the success of
this enterprise (Western Reefs itself was only registered on 11 April
1933), and though it might be hoped that geological conditions south of
the Vaal might reproduce those present north of the river, this had
still to be proved, and much time and expense were necessarily involved
before an adequate picture of the situation could be obtained. In the
event, the Basal Reef, the economic foundation of the present
gold-field, was not discovered until April 1939, when Borehole No. 7,
situated on the farm St. Helena, No. 642, in the Welkom district,
drilled by Western Holdings Limited, struck the reef at a depth of
1,143 feet, giving an average yield of 34-62 dwt over 67-45 inches, or,
in the usual terminology, a yield of 2,335 inch-dwt.42 The Basal Reef is by no means the only gold-bearing reef discovered,43 but it is the only generally payable reef, upon which the
42 The figures in the text are the average of the original drilling result and of a deflection:
'661
feet of Karroo beds and 134 feet of Ventersdorp beds were encountered.
At 795 feet, the drill entered the Upper Reef zone, which persisted to
1,151 feet. The No. 1 Leader Reef and the Basal Reef were intersected
at 1,086 feet and 1,143 fcet, and assayed 3-17 dwt over 62
inches, and 25-4 dwt over 74+ inches respectively. The borehole was
deflected and No. 1 Leader and Basal Reefs returned values of 7-9 dwt
over 26 inches at 1,089 feet and 45-9 dwt over 60-J- inches at 1,147 fect
respectively. Drilling was stopped at 1,276 feet in the original hole.'
Consulting engineer's report, dated 18 March 1940, p. 5 of the Third annual report of Western Holdings Limited, for the year ended 31 December 1939.
43 The
relationships between the reefs of the Orange Free State and those of
the West Witwatcrsrand and Klerksdorp fields were investigated by
radio-activity logging in 1949 and onwards by D. J. Simpson
('Correlation of the sediments of the Witwatersrand
