Goud vir die Soeker

Goud vir die soeker : die verhaal van die mense van die Boshoff-myne by Piet Meiring

Gold for the prospector (Goud vir die soeker) is the story of the first mining company owned by an Afrikaner, Willem Boshoff. It tells the story of the company’s history from 1933 – 1963. Willem Boshoff is not only famous for being the first Afrikaner to own a mining company but also for the novel “Boshoff method of reclamation”.

In his paper, in the Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, November 1981, “The reclamation of gold from worked-out mines by the Boshoff method”, G J Krige says the following:

“For more than forty-five years, the Boshoff method of reclamation has been successfully practised on the gold mines. The late Mr W. P. Boshoff started ‘mining’ operations in 1934 at the Primrose Gold Mine. Since the Boshoff Group is solely dependent on ‘left overs’ from previous mining activities, a completely new approach was necessary to make Boshoff Mining an economic and viable proposition. The late Mr Boshoff found it an arduous task to convince and persuade people to put money into such a venture. Even the Government Mining Engineer thought that he was one of those entrepreneurs pouring his hard-earned money down the drain who would very soon be out of business. Although people were found to put a few pounds into this risky enterprise, they did it in a spirit of bidding farewell to their money. How wrong they have all proved to be: the little-known Boshoff Group is still, after more than forty-five years, producing gold and paying exceedingly high dividends to its shareholders. Why, then, is this Group successful in extracting gold for the benefit of the country – gold that would have been lost and left underground if there had been no Boshoff Group to extract it?”

Historians and mining engineers interested in the history of mining on the Witwatersrand will find this book a treasure trove of useful information.