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Mines/South Africa

Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887

Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887, South Africa, mining gold.

Why Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887 is famous

SAHO records the main reef find by George Harrison at Langlaagte in July 1886, the first large company (Witwatersrand Gold Mining Company) on 14 September 1886 and the name Johannesburg on 3 October 1886. By the end of 1887, 14 mines with 93 stamps made about 19,080 oz a year. Johannesburg had about 102,000 people by 1895. Coordinates are approximate and were not read from a source page.1

Story cards

Timeline

  1. July 1886Gold found on the Witwatersrand2
  2. from July 1886Witwatersrand gold rush3
  3. 1887Cyanide process for gold developed in Scotland4
  4. 1917Anglo American founded5
  5. 1946African mine workers' strike on the Witwatersrand6

What kind of deposit

Quartz-pebble conglomerate gold-uranium (Witwatersrand type)

Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887 today

Where gold is mined todayMining in South Africa

Where next

People

Discovered byCarl MauchA German explorer found Rand gold 18 years before the rush, and nobody believed him.7Inspired byJohn Stewart MacArthurRecovery on the Rand rose from about 45 to 98 per cent.8Owned bySir Joseph Benjamin RobinsonHe bought Langlaagte and bet that the reef ran west.9Financed byAlfred BeitHis firm was a forerunner in deep-level Rand mining.10

Mines

ExamplesMponengMponeng works reef at 3,160 to 3,740 m. The Witwatersrand main reef was found in 1886.11ExamplesTauTonaDeep gold near Carletonville, closed in 2017, on the field found in 1886.12

Events

HereCyanide process for gold developed in ScotlandThe MacArthur-Forrest process reached the Witwatersrand in May 1890.4Led toGold found on the WitwatersrandRead what happened near Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887: Gold found on the Witwatersrand.1Led toAnglo American foundedRead what happened near Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887: Anglo American founded.1HereWitwatersrand gold rushA mine from the same area and mineral story: Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887.3

Places

Located inJohannesburgWitwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887 sits at Johannesburg.1

Deposit types

An example ofQuartz-pebble conglomerate gold-uranium (Witwatersrand type)Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887 belongs to the quartz-pebble conglomerate gold-uranium family of deposits.13

Sources

  1. Discovery of gold, 1884 South African History Online
  2. Discovery of the Gold in 1884 South African History Online
  3. Year Book Australia 1911, gold chapter Australian Bureau of Statistics
  4. Cyanide hazards to plants and animals from gold mining and related water issues (publication page) US Geological Survey
  5. 100 years of Anglo American
  6. 1946 African Mineworkers Strike South African History Online
  7. Mauch, Carl Neue Deutsche Biographie / Deutsche Biographie
  8. MacArthur papers: John Stewart MacArthur Balliol College Archives, Oxford
  9. Robinson, Sir Joseph Benjamin Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911 (public-domain text on Wikisource)
  10. Beit, Alfred Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement (public-domain text on Wikisource), article by C. W. Boyd
  11. Form 20-F for the year ended 30 June 2025 Harmony Gold Mining (SEC)
  12. Form 20-F for the year ended 31 December 2025 AngloGold Ashanti plc (SEC)
  13. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

Pictures on this page: Jsmacarthur-X-007r.jpg, Elliott & Fry according to verso jsmacarthur-X-007v on flickr (Public domain); Alfred Beit00.jpg, Giovanni Boldini (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Underground mining equipment by Kaupo Kikkas, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0).