Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-10-11
GOLD AND DIAMONDS.
Enormous Riches In the Mines of south
Africa,


Enormous Riches In the Mines of south
Africa.
The mining interests of Africa, cspe-
cially the wonderful gold and diamond
mines which have attracted so much
attention, are the subject Of chapter
in the monograph just prepared by the
monograph bureau Of statistics, on
commercial Africa in 1899 Much of
the recently rapid development Of Af-
rica, especially in the southern part,
where the greatest rapidity of develop
ment has occurred, is due to the dis
covery and development of extremely
valuable mineral deposits. The most
valuable Of these are gold and dia-
monds, though incidentally it may be
mentioned that the iron, coal and 9th.
er mineral deposits Of south and south
east Africa give promise Of great value
when wealth seeking man has time to
turn his attention from the gold mines
to those which promise less rapid, but
perhaps equally certain profits.
That the gold and diamond mines of
south Africa have been and still are,
wonderfully profitable, however, is be-
yond question. The Kimberley dia-
mond mines, which are located in
British territory, uSt outside the
boundary of the Orange Free State and
about 600 miles from Capctown, now
supply 9S per cent. of the diamonds of
commerce, although their existence
was unknown prior to 1867, and the
the mines have thus been in operation
about 80 years only. 1t is estimated
that $350, 100000 worth of rough da.
monds, worth double that sum after
cutting, have been produced from the
Kimberly mines since their opening i'll
1865. 1869, and the enormous produc-
ton would have been greatly increased
but for the fact that the owners of the
various mines in this vicinity formed
an agreement by which the annual
output was so limited as to meet, but
not materially exceed, the annual con-
sumption of the worlds diamond
markets. So plentiful is the supply
and so comparatively inexpensive the
work of production, that diamond dig
ging in other parts of the world has
almost ceased since the south African
mines entered the field.
Equally wonderful and equally prom
ising are the great "Witwatersrand"
gold fields of South Africa, located in
the South African republic, better
known as the Johannesburg mines.
The Dutch word "Witwatersand'
means literally "White Water Range"
and the strip of territory, few hun
dred miles long and few miles in
width, to which it is applied, was but
few years ago considered nearly
worthless ridge, useful only for the
pasturage of cattle and sheep, and for
even this comparatively valueless. In
1888, however, gold was discovered,
and in 1854 the value Of the gold pro-
duction was about $4,000. 1t in
creased with startling rapidity, the
production of 1855 being about $5,OOO,-
900; that of 1890, $1O,OO0,000; 1892,
over $2O,0O0,000; 1895, over 10000
900, and 1897 and 1898 about $780,
900 in each year.
This wonderful development has at
tracted great attention to South Atrl-
ca and drawn thither thousands of peo-
pie in the hope of realizing quick for
tunes. Development, however, show
ed that the mines could only be sue
cessfully worked by the use of costly
machinery, and while they haye been
extremely productive where machine
ry has been used, they were not OF
such character to make hand or placer
mining profitable, as was the case in
California.
The gold production in the Grand
since 1884 has been over $500, ,OOO,-
600, and careful surveys of the field by
the use of drills and other processes OF
experts show beyond question that the
"insight" probably amount to $3,5O0,-
900, 900, while the large number of
mines which have been located in adj
iacrnt territory, particularly in parts
of Rhodesia, gives promise ofaddltlon-
al supplies, so that it seems probable
South Africa will for many years con-
tinue to be, as it now is, the largest
god-producing section of the world.
Recent discoveries lead to the belief
that these wonderfully rich mines are
the long lost "gold of Ophir," from
which Solomon obtained his supplies,
making "a navy of ships IN Ezion-
Geber, which is opposite Eloth, on the
shore of the Red sea in the land of
Edom and Hiram sent in the navy his
servants, shipmen that had knowledge
of the sea, with the servants of Solo
mon; and they came to Ophir and
fetched from thence gold and brought
it to King solomon"
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