The Kromdraai Gold Mine

Gold-bearing ore was pulled out of the Kromdraai Gold Mine in cocopans by donkeys

The Kromdraai Gold Mine, 7 km (4 mi) from Sterkfontein on the Kromdraai Farm, was one of the first gold mines in South Africa. Gold was discovered on the farm in 1881, and it was officially proclaimed as a mine in 1885.

Kromdraai was first worked by prospector Johannes Minnaar, who mined a particularly rich, gold-bearing vein of quartz, formed perhaps 2.6-billion years ago by hydrothermal action deep within the Earth.

The thin seam of gold-bearing quartz, which was only about 500 mm (20”) wide, was sandwiched between two thicker layers of quartzite and shale.

The early miners tunnelled into the hilltop, following the vein carrying the gold for 1 km (0.6 mi).

They were ill-equipped, without helmets or shoes, and had to work by candlelight and in cramped conditions, chiselling and probing the rich quartz from where it lay. But they were motivated by the particularly high yield – an average of about 25 grams (0.9 oz) of gold per tonne (2,200 lb) of ore.

They used donkeys to pull the gold-bearing ore along railway tracks through the mine’s tunnels to the outside, where it was crushed and processed, probably using lime from the nearby limeworks at Sterkfontein after 1896.

Kromdraai was just one of the mines in the area. During the 1880s, there were 600 alluvial claims staked along the banks of the Blaaubank River, which runs through the Cradle of Humankind.

But the gold rush in the area was overshadowed by the discovery of gold on the nearby Witwatersrand in 1886. By 1914, the Kromdraai Gold Mine had closed forever. Today, it is possible to visit the mine, and to walk through the dark tunnels just as the miners did a century or more ago.