Mount Anderson: South Africa’s forgotten gold rush in the first decades of the 20th century situated in regional historical and geomorphological context

Abstract

Major localities that first attracted gold seekers from many parts of the world to the Transvaal in the 1870s and 1880s were along the river valleys that intersect the great eastern escarpment that rises high above the lowveld. The history of alluvial gold mining in the eastern region of South Africa has received attention from scholars of mining engineering, mine management and economics, as well as from academics in the fields of geology, mining and mineral legislation. In particular, it has also fascinated the popular reading market because of romantic tales that chronicle the excitement of a digger serendipitously finding a large gold nugget lying in a riverbed. The larger alluvial mining sites in Mpumalanga, like Pilgrims Rest, Sabie, Barberton and Kaapsche Hoop, are no longer commercially worked, having long been superseded by the deep-level riches of the Witwatersrand. However, the unexplored history of many small alluvial gold discoveries is worth recording. It is the purpose of this article to contextualise the little-known Mount Anderson gold rush of the early 20th century within the broader historical and geological background of the area, and to bring these small mines to wider attention as part of South Africa’s regional industrial heritage.
Contribution: In combining the disciplines of history and geology, this article highlights a little-known goldfield at Mount Anderson. It provides information about the locality and the extraction of gold from its small mines that operated until well into the 20th century.