Mining – Heart Blood of South Africa

South Africa has had numerous diamond and gold rushes. Diamonds and gold are the things that can make a man’s blood boil and make him lose all sense of sensibility. But how many people can say that there was a lime rush or an iron rush, or even a coal rush? Coal was once known as black gold.

Well, in South Africa mining is big business. We have all kinds of mining: diamonds, gold, coal, lime and iron ore. However, diamond mining has been the biggest mining project. Mining will be in South Africa for many generations to come. I have always just wondered how much has South Africa gained with all these diamond mines. Where are the diamonds? Mined in South Africa and then taken elsewhere. I do believe that most of the gold mined in South Africa gets to stay here. After all, the South African currency is based on the gold exchange.

I am sure that mining has touched everybody at some stage in their lives. As I grew up in Kimberley, the diamond mines had a profound effect on me. Even though I did not work permanently in the mines, I did my share of underground and above-ground mining excursions. The diamond mines are mostly underground now. The last open-cast diamond mine in Kimberley has reached the depth to deem it viable to go underground with the iconic headgear that is a feature of the South African landscape.

At PPC Lime I was in the open cast mining business of fixing the huge Lectra Haul trucks. It is quite the achievement to replace one of the huge V16 engines powering those beasts. You can feel the rumbling of the engine through your feet and feel the machine moving. Hauling lime from the bottom of the pit, slowly creeping up on the circular roadway. Round and round you go with the engine roaring at top speed. Just when you think that it cannot go anymore you get to the top and the vehicle dumps its load into the chute and goes down again to collect the next load. It does this 24 hours a day for six days. Only the driver changes. It will only rest on the seventh day when the mine is closed.

At Sishen, I was in the open cast mine servicing the compressors on the largest loader in the southern hemisphere. It was most definitely the largest that I have ever seen. It has an electrical umbilical cord for power as it does not have an engine to drive it. This machine is bigger than a six-story building. It has the biggest caterpillar-type tracks that I have ever seen. It has a permanently mounted ladder on the side of the machine. All the main functions of the machine are controlled electrically. It makes use of a huge three-inch thick electric cord to manoeuvre between the open cast holes in the ground.

Once the machine has been plugged into the power anybody with a pacemaker, hearing aid or any other electrical device is not allowed in or near it. The magnetic field that is generated by the remaining electric cord is very strong. There are big warning signs that say you should not approach the rear of the machine. The scoop which uses hydraulics over electrics is so big that normally one scoop is enough to fill the truck to capacity. This machine towers over the other trucks as if they were toys. Vehicles are not allowed within 50 meters of the machine. But that was for the smaller trucks as well. That was due to the blind spots the drivers have to face. If they accidentally ride over a motor vehicle, they don’t even feel it.

Without mining to give South Africa its lifeblood there is not much else going for South Africa. What is going to happen when all the mining has been done and the earth has been plundered and raped of all but dirt and sand? They have left huge gaps in the scenery. All these huge open-cast mines are also leaving huge craters all across South Africa. As the diamonds, gold, coal and iron ore are getting depleted now they are looking at fracking. It is almost as if they have not done enough damage on the surface yet. Will they stop when South Africa has been turned into a desolate desert with no worthwhile minerals at all?

Fracking in the Karoo was met with such opposition that it is on hold. Let’s hope forever.
The animals are sadly almost gone already. Even the fishing has suffered.

As with all things, there has to be a balance of mining and environment preservation.