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Blyvooruitzicht ( [ˈbləifoərœitsəχt]) is a gold mine and gold-mining village in Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated about 3.5 km south of the centre of Carletonville and 80 km westwards from Johannesburg.
Contents
- Water supply restored at blyvooruitzicht in carletonville
- History of the village
- History of the mine
- Sinkholes
- The Villagers
- Isidingo
- Gold
- Uranium
- References
Water supply restored at blyvooruitzicht in carletonville
History of the village
The name of the village is of Dutch origin meaning "happy prospect". The farm Blyvooruitzicht was first farmed by Pieter Daniël Roux and the main road through the current village is named after him. Established in 1937, Blyvooruitzicht village was built to house the workers of the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine which was the first to mine on the gold of the West Wits line. In the late 60's and early 70's it boasted having the highest earnings per capita in the world. However taking into account that it was proclaimed at the height of the apartheid era, it is probable that these statistics did not factor in the "non white" worker's earnings.
History of the mine
Production started in 1942 under the ownership of Rand Mines. Later ownership passed to DRD (in 1997), then Village Main Reef and more recently Blyvoor Gold, a company run by Peter Skeat and Richard Floyd.
Sinkholes
An ancient Sinkhole south west of the village called the Hutgrot Cave was the shelter of the Batswana tribes during the Mzilikazi raids.
The Villagers
Blyvoor mine and village was the setting for a soap opera filmed in the 1970s called the "The Villagers".
Isidingo
The highest point in the village is a hill called "Isidingo", which is where the mine Manager's house was built. This is from where the current soap opera "Isidingo" derives its name.
Gold
Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining Company Limited (Blyvoor), has underground and surface operations and is situated on the north-western edge of the Witwatersrand Basin. Established in 1937, it was the first mine on the West Wits line. Production started here in 1942 and Blyvoor has been an operation of DRDGOLD since 1997.
Blyvoor has two main gold-bearing horizons: the Carbon Leader Reef (CLR), which is one of the principal ore bodies of the Carletonville goldfield; and the Middelvlei Reef, which is some 75 metres above the CLR horizon. At present mining is concentrated on No 5 shaft with all mining operations on No 4 and No 6 shaft put to a stop due to low grades and high risks.
Blyvoor also treats gold-bearing slimes dams and waste rock dumps. The mine’s carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant is currently processing some 300 000 tonnes of tailings per month.
Blyvoor, which has plant capacity of around 400 000 tonnes a month, produces some 166 000 ounces of gold per year. The mine employs 1000 people including contractors.
Uranium
A pilot uranium extraction plant was put in operation at Blyvooruitzicht in October 1949 and by 1953 uranium production was done at large scale. Tailings from the slime dams created by gold mining operations were later reprocessed for uranium extraction.