Historic Overview of the Witwatersrand Goldfields

摘要

Almost everyone living in southern Africa, and most educated people from elsewhere in the world, has heard of the fabulously rich mines of the Witwatersrand Goldfields, and the city of Johannesburg that grew up as a result of them to become the financial and cultural hub of Africa. Depending to whom you listen, you are told that since 1 886 between a quarter and half of all the gold that ever had been mined on Earth has come from these mines, and they are still producing despite higher costs due to deep mining and the low gold price. Only a little less well known to most were and are the personalities that made the Witwatersrand saga happen, including Cecil Rhodes and re atives, Paul Kruger, Barney and relatives, John Hays Hammond, Percy Fitzpatrick, J. B. Robinson and the Oppenheimer dynasty. For students of history, there is a plethora of books and articles available describing the human and political sides of the Witwatersrand saga with varying degrees of truth and fantasy. For students of geology, there is a vast literature describing and interpreting the mineralization even though no consensus has emerged in over a century as to how and why so much gold came to be concentrated in such a small portion of the Earth's crust. There is a so a series of individual corporate histories commissioned to de-scribe, in glorious and heroic terms, the achievements (but rarely the failures) of the various Witwatersrand mining houses and the Chamber of Mines. But nowhere, until now, has there been a book critically describing the multifaceted history of the Witwatersrand Goldfields from an industry-wide perspective with well documented facts and figures to back up the assertions. We have John Hundley's passion for the Witwatersrand to thank for changing this situation.