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Paper Number: 58
The mining history of Cape
Town
Cole, D.I.1
1
Council for Geoscience, P.O. Box 572, Bellville 7535, South Africa,
dcole@geoscience.org.za
Mining took place at four sites in the Cape Peninsula south of Cape
Town between 1687 and 1912, but either failed or was only marginally
economic. The earliest site, Silvermine, some 21 km south of Cape Town,
was prospected between 1687 and 1688 by means of a 16 m-deep shaft and
two adits 20 and 15 metres long excavated into sandstone of the Table
Mountain Group. No silver was assayed and it is thought that the
prospectors had mistaken black bands of manganese ore for tarnished
silver ore [1]. The shaft and adits are still in a reasonable condition
and could be preserved as a heritage site.
Gold was discovered near Lion’s Head in the vicinity of Cape Town in
1886 and the site, which was named the Lion’s Head Gold Mine, was
prospected between 1886 and 1888 by means of a vertical shaft 45 metres
deep on the contact between the Malmesbury Group hornfels and the Cape
Granite Suite [2, 3]. The gold was hosted in pyrite within quartz veins
with a grade of 24.5 g/t. The shaft was filled in 1951 and the site is
difficult to locate.
Hout Bay Manganese Mine, 16 km south-southwest of Cape Town, was
worked between 1909 and 1911, when 5130 tons of ore were exploited from
a northwest-trending manganese lode 600 metres long hosted by sandstone
of the Table Mountain Group [4]. Several unstable adits and stacks of
manganese ore are present, as well as two concrete supports of the
loading jetty on the coast below the mine [1].
The final mining operation exploited tin from a site near the present
suburb of Vredehoek. This site was named the Vredehoek Tin Mine and
exploited cassiterite from stockwork quartz veins in the Malmesbury
Group slate between 1911 and 1912. A total of 4 tons of cassiterite
concentrate at 70 % Sn was produced [5]. A 150 metre-long adit, vertical
shaft and concrete flumes are still in place and could be preserved as a
mining heritage site.
References
[1] Spargo P (2010) Kalk Bay Historical Association Bulletin 14:
1-37
[2] De Beer M (1987) The Lion Mountain: Balkema, 176 p
[3] Spargo P (2015) National Library of South Africa Bulletin 69 (1):
28-40
[4] Welsh A (1917) Cape Times Limited, Government Printers, U.G.
34-17
[5] Spargo P (1999) National Library of South Africa Bulletin 54 (1):
19-26
