Mining Progress In Southern Africa

Before the advent of the great mineral revolution in the latter half of the 19th century, South Africa was a sleepy colonial backwater whose unpromising landscape was seemingly devoid of any economic potential. Yet lying just beneath the dusty surface of the land lay the richest treasure trove of gold, diamonds, platinum, coal and a host of other metals and minerals that has ever been discovered in one country. It was the discovery and exploitation of first diamonds in 1870 and then gold in 1886 that proved the catalyst to the greatest mineral revolution the world has ever known, which transformed South Africa into the supreme industrialised power on the African continent. Here for the first time is the complete history of South Africa's phenomenal mineral revolution spanning a period of more than 150 years, from its earliest commercial beginnings to the present day, incorporating seven of the major commodities that have been exploited. Digging Deep describes the establishment and unparalleled growth of mining, tracing the history of the industry from its humble beginnings where copper was first mined on a commercial basis in Namaqualand in the Cape Colony in the early 1850s, to the discovery and exploitation of the country's other major mineral commodities. This is also the story of how mining gave rise to modern South Africa and how it compelled the country to develop and progress the way in which it did. It also incorporates the stories of the visionary men - Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Beit, Barney Barnato, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, Sammy Marks and Hans Merensky - who pioneered and shaped the development of the industry on which modern South Africa was built.

The second 'African Mining' conference is planned for June 1991, and follows the first, very successful, event held in May 1987. That full four-year period was characterized by substantial changes in the political and economic climate of many countries in both hemispheres. Copper prices were relatively firm, and the advance and steady demand for nickel and ferrochromium stabilized important sectors of the mineral industry, certainly in Zimbabwe. The promise for gold remained unfulfilled, but the smaller, relatively flexible, mines survived and only the large, deep and low-value mines seem seriously at risk. None of this has affected the hungry, and intensive exploitations from surface to the water-table have revealed many targets of promise to those willing to take the risks. The pattern in Southern Africa was extraordinarily stable among the turmoil, with independence for Namibia, adjustments in South Africa and a gradual shift to market economies in the region. The pace of exploration has increased to recover some part of the progress that was lost in the Independence struggle, and atthe end of the first decade in Zimbabwe, for example, oil is being sought in the Zambesi Rift, following the investigation of the Luangwa in Zambia, and there are exciting exploration projects for methane released from coal, deep in its basins.

Southern African Development Community SADC) Business Law Handbook - Strategic Informtion and Basic Laws