Digging deep. A history of mining in South Africa 1852-2002

Digging Deep chronicles the history of South Africa's mining from 1852 to 2002 and the great mineral revolution.
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Title: Digging deep
Subtitle: A history of mining in South Africa
Author: Jade Davenport
Genre: Mining history
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Johannesburg; Cape Town 2013
ISBN 9781868424238 / ISBN 978-1-86842-423-8
Hardcover, dustjacket, 15 x 23 cm, 537 pages, numerous b/w and colour photos

Description:

When 'mountains of copper' were discovered in the drylands of Namaqualand, many days' trek from the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa took its first halting steps towards commercial mining. Nearly two decades later, when a farmer's son picked up a 'mooi klip', later to be called the Eureka Diamond, people were reluctant to believe that such riches would ever be found in abundance in the dry hinterland of the country. Not long after, the discovery of the 83.5 carat Star of South Africa on the banks of the Vaal River sparked the first of the diamond rushes and the first Diggers' Republic. Digging Deep chronicles South Africa's great mineral revolution, the lucky strikes and the struggles of prospecting in the late 1800s, the rushes to boom-and-bust towns in the Eastern Transvaal Goldfield, the dubious beginnings of the Witwatersrand (the largest and richest goldfield in the world, with the lowest-grade ore), and the stories of the visionary men like Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Beit, Barney Barnato, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, Sammy Marks and Hans Merensky who pioneered and shaped the industry on which modern South Africa was built. The author traverses the history of the industry over the course of the 20th century, taking the reader right up to the modern era. This is the only account in a single volume of how South Africa's gold, diamonds, platinum, coal and a host of other metals and minerals, the richest treasure trove ever discovered in one country, transformed a colonial backwater into the greatest industrialised power on the African continent.

Content: Digging deep. A history of mining in South Africa

Introduction
Prospecting the New Frontier
The Cradle of Commercial Mining
The First Rush
The Era of Diggers' Democracy
The Search for a South African El Dorado
The Pilgrims' Gold Bonanza
Enter the Mining Magnates
Finding the Golden Arc
The Magnates and the Mother Lode
King of Coal
Consolidation of the Monopoly
Kruger's Curse
The Visionary
Foil and Trouble
New Prospects along the Golden Arc
Powering Industry
Trove of the Bushveld
The Rise of Platinum
The Fission Factor
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index