Torbanite - 'n dorp te koop

Abstract

In 1893 J.J. Janecke discovered cannel coal (torbanite) on his farm Mooifontein between Ermelo and Breyten. A subsequent owner named Stanford shipped one ton of torbanite to Scotland where 190 litres of oil was distilled from it. In 1934 the South African Torbanite Mining Company Ltd. (SA TMAR) was established to extract oil from torbanite and in 1936 the first Satmar petroleum reached the market. In the years that followed the company expanded rapidly and became of great economic importance to the area, but by 1960 the economic exploitable torbanite gave out and mining was stopped. Torbanite, the town established at the mine, was for sale but as nobody was interested in buying it, it was eventually demolished.