The Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup finishes off this weekend with a parade in Virginia in the Free State. Harmony Academy won the event and are going to get R 1 000 000 to use on legacy projects. Harmony Academy is well known in South Africa for their soccer history but the area is also known for its Gold mining producing one of the world’s richest gold mining regions.
The town’s name comes from 2 railway surveyors from Virginia in the United States who in 1890 etched their names and birthplace on a boulder near the farm Merrispruit. When the railway siding was established the name was adopted. The next significant date was in 1955 when gold was found on the banks of the Sand River.
It is significant to know that, during the apartheid era, black people were not allowed to live in the town and had to commute from Meloding. This is quite fascinating since Harmony Academy is a predominantly black school and they have uplifted the area due to their soccer skills. Another interesting fact is that the town exists due to the various gold mines that are in the area and they have been built on the blood and sweat of their black workers.
Naturally the kids that will be involved in the parade will not be thinking about the history of the area when they drive through on their open bus. They are the future of the area and they will just be thinking about the future that they are about to create for themselves.
About the mine
The Harmony Free State Operations are located on the south-western corner of the Witwatersrand Basin, between the towns of Allanridge, Welkom, Theunissen and Virginia. The basin, situated on the Kaapvaal Craton, has been filled by a 6-kilometre thick succession of sedimentary rocks, which extends laterally for hundreds of kilometers.
The Free State goldfield is divided into two sections, cut by the north-south De Bron Fault. This major structure has a vertical displacement of about 1 500m in the region of Bambanani, as well as a lateral shift of 4km. This lateral shift can allow a reconstruction of the orebodies of Unisel to the west of the De Bron and Merriespruit to the east. A number of other major faults (Stuirmanspan, Dagbreek, Arrarat and Eureka) lie parallel to the De Bron Fault.
The western margin area is bound by synclines and reverse thrust faults and is structurally complex. Towards the south and east, reefs sub-crop against overlying strata, eventually cutting out against the Karoo to the east of the lease area.
Mining that has taken place is mostly deep-level underground mining, exploiting the narrow, generally shallow dipping tabular reefs.
The Basal Reef is the most common reef and is mined at nearly all the shafts. It varies from a single pebble lag to channels of more than 2m in thickness. It is commonly overlain by shale, which gets thicker further North.
The second major reef is the Leader Reef, located 15-20m above the Basal Reef. This is mostly mined by the shafts in the South. The reef consists of multiple conglomerate units, separated by thin quartzitic zones, often getting up to 4 m thick.
No comments:
Post a Comment