Blyvooruitzicht

Blyvooruitzicht
Blyvooruitzicht
Blyvooruitzicht
Blyvooruitzicht

 Blyvooruitzicht shown within Gauteng

Coordinates: 26°24′S 27°24′E / 26.400°S 27.400°E / -26.400; 27.400Coordinates: 26°24′S 27°24′E / 26.400°S 27.400°E / -26.400; 27.400
Country South Africa
Province Gauteng
District West Rand
Municipality Merafong City
Area[1]
 • Total 3.71 km2 (1.43 sq mi)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Total 698
 • Density 190/km2 (490/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)[1]
 • Black African 84.2%
 • White 15.8%
First languages (2011)[1]
 • Xhosa 26.8%
 • Afrikaans 15.2%
 • Tswana 12.3%
 • Sotho 10.5%
 • Other 35.2%

Blyvooruitzicht (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈbləifoərœitsəχt]) is a gold-mining village in Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated about 3.5 km south of the centre of Carletonville and 80 km westwards from Johannesburg.

History

The name of the village is of Dutch origin meaning "happy prospect". The farm Blyvooruitzicht was first farmed by Pieter Daniël Roux and the main road through the current village is named after him.[2] Established in 1937, Blyvooruitzicht village was built to house the workers of the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine which was the first to mine on the gold of the West Wits line. Production started in 1942 and Blyvoor has been an operation of DRDGOLD since 1997.

In the late 60's and early 70's it boasted having the highest earnings per capita in the world. However taking into account that it was proclaimed at the height of the apartheid era, it is probable that these statistics did not factor in the "non white" worker's earnings.

Sinkholes

External images
Photos of the Sinkhole memorial from the Genealogical Society of South Africa
Location: 26°24′17″S 27°22′10″E / 26.40472°S 27.36944°E / -26.40472; 27.36944 (1964 sinkhole)

The area became notorious for its sinkholes and unstable ground conditions. This is as a result of a high proliferation of Dolomite rock formations which eroded with the lowering of the water table by extensive underground mining and its continuous pumping operations.

On 3 August 1964 two houses and parts of two others disappeared down a massive sinkhole in which the Oosthuizen family of four perished. No trace was ever found of them, their house or their car. A monument was erected on the hill overlooking the area where the Westdene suburb stood. The fitting inscription on the monument reads, "God himself laid them to rest".

An ancient Sinkhole south west of the village called the Hutgrot Cave was the shelter of the Batswana tribes during the Mzilikazi raids.

Places of interest

The Villagers

Blyvoor mine and village was the setting for a soap opera filmed in the 1970s called the "The Villagers".

Isidingo

The highest point in the village is a hill called "Isidingo", which is where the mine Manager's house was built. This is from where the current soap opera "Isidingo" derives its name.

Mining Operations

Gold

Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining Company Limited (Blyvoor), has underground and surface operations and is situated on the north-western edge of the Witwatersrand Basin. Established in 1937, it was the first mine on the West Wits line. Production started here in 1942[3] and Blyvoor has been an operation of DRDGOLD since 1997.

Blyvoor has two main gold-bearing horizons: the Carbon Leader Reef (CLR), which is one of the principal ore bodies of the Carletonville goldfield; and the Middelvlei Reef, which is some 75 metres above the CLR horizon. At present mining is concentrated on No 5 shaft with all mining operations on No 4 and No 6 shaft put to a stop due to low grades and high risks.

Blyvoor also treats gold-bearing slimes dams and waste rock dumps. The mine’s carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant is currently processing some 300 000 tonnes of tailings per month.

Blyvoor, which has plant capacity of around 400 000 tonnes a month, produces some 166 000 ounces of gold per year. The mine employs 4 520 people including contractors.

Uranium

A pilot uranium extraction plant was put in operation at Blyvooruitzicht in October 1949 and by 1953 uranium production was done at large scale.[4] Tailings from the slime dams created by gold mining operations were later reprocessed for uranium extraction.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Main Place Blyvooruitzicht". Census 2011.
  2. ↑ van der Bijl, Johannes (1978). Die Familie Roux. Raad vir Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing. Pretoria. p. 142. ISBN 0-86965-464-0. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  3. ↑ Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (Great Britain) (January 1951). "Discussion on Notes of the Development of the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining Co., Ltd., South Africa". Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  4. ↑ C. S. McLean & T. K. Prentice (1956). "The South African Uranium Industry". International Conference On The Peaceful Uses Of Atomic Energy. 8: 101. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  5. ↑ C. S. McLean & T. K. Prentice (1956). "The South African Uranium Industry". International Conference On The Peaceful Uses Of Atomic Energy. 8: 103. Retrieved 10 December 2013.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.