One man unlocked the largest gold deposits ever

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J.G. Bantjes -The spark that fired up the world’s biggest gold rush ever!

The South African Transvaal Republic of the mid 19th century was created by a small band of farmers who, dissatisfied with the poor treatment they received at the hand of the colonial British government in the Cape province, had decided to move away north across the Orange river and even further across the Vaal river. Not an attractive prospect, both of these areas with poor rainfall, virtually no worthwhile water resources, mostly savannah with little natural timber, totally hard virgin land characterized by vast numbers of hard plough-breaking termite mounds; all of which warned of a future demanding very hard work and uncertain prospects. The only positive aspect was that it offered freedom from the stifling, interfering, discompassionate and oppressive control of Britain.

Britain, at first, decided to act militarily against this small band of farmers but ended up with egg on it’s proud face when this small band of farmers taught them lessons, at Majuba and Spioen Kop, that they have still not forgotten. So it agreed to leave the farmers alone in what then became the republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, leaving them alone to get on with the job of taming these lands.

Progress was slow. The almost impossible task of turning the unwilling land into profitable farms would take a long time. Non existing infrastructure such as roads, dams, railways, towns, post, hospitals, police, courts, schools and governmental offices had to be created and financed. There was evidence of some mineral resources promising coal, copper, manganese, asbestos, iron and even gold but these never seemed to be of great value and investigations by known and experienced overseas experts did not offer much hope. Diamonds had been discovered and successfully mined in the Cape province, under Britain’s control, offering little to these farmers other than custom for their farm products.

Gold, however, has the image of magic. Even small quantities could fill one’s bank account and lead to a life of comfort. So, prospectors scratched the farmers’ lands thoroughly hoping to do well. And, in some cases they did. The little village of Barberton saw a worthwhile amount of alluvial gold. The prospectors beamed and an almost insane celebration led to the creation of two stock exchanges there! But it did not last, and the town now earns it’s keep from tourism.

Another area of interest was the Ridge of White Waters, the hilly region named after the water that arose from the small streams that flowed therefrom. Evidence of gold deposits in the surrounding areas had been discovered by a number of prospectors. From the many reports it is impossible to determine who made the first discovery and writers still argue about who has the honours.

This was complicated. Visible gold was found in hard quartzite reefs, difficult to extract and also made worse by the percentage of Iron Pyrites, the so-called “fool’s gold”, almost indistinguishable from the gold deposits, as well as interfering with the process extracting the gold. There were other reefs as well with different compositions, such as the “confidence” and the “bird” reefs. These reefs were not easily worked and did nothing to encourage necessary investments to fund the machinery and supplies used in the extraction process.

Enter the man who made the difference – there is one like this in almost any world beating success story.

Jan Gerritze Bantjes. 1834 – 1914

Son of, guess who, Jan Gerritze Bantjes, who was a well known man, one of the leaders among the farmers who trekked north to the future Transvaal, civil servant, and adviser to leaders of the farmers. A teacher by profession, some of Jan Senior’s students included three later Presidents – Kruger, Pretorius, and Erasmus.

Jan Junior first followed his father and worked as a teacher, joined the civil service, later becoming Magistrate, moved to Lydenburg where he decided to switch his career to prospecting. From there he moved to Krugersdorp, and operated the Kromdraai Gold Mine from 1882 with his partner Johannes Stephanus ‘Fanie’ Minnaar where they mined quartz reefs for gold. Their mining operation was the first significant operation of this kind in the Witwatersrand area. Bantjes had hoped to find the conglomerate reef at Kromdraai, but this did not happen. He was probably the first to concentrate on the conglomerate reef called “Banket”. He may well be the person who gave it that name. In a letter to his brother dated March 17, 1882, he referred to this reef:

I mentioned to you the peculiar banket formation which I panned a few months ago. Well, I took these rocks from a hole on the Vlakfontein farm. It is my belief that these rocks will ultimately prove to be rich in gold. I have traced the same formation on the adjoining farm and also on Vogelstruisfontein. If only I can strike the banket on Kromdraai, I shall not worry about prospecting anywhere else.

This Banket reef had been noticed by others. No-one else believed in the future of the reef. A representative from Rothschilds explored the same area and declared that there was no possibility of finding gold in this reef. An expert from Kimberley agreed with the Rothschild assessment. A mining engineer from Australia also took a dim view of the value of this reef.

Bantjes and Minnaar took on some partners in Kromdraai and continued working it until December 1883 when they sold out to Henry Nourse who took the company public. Bantjes then directed his attention to the Roodepoort area where he hoped to find the reef. The Bantjes family had been informed of an inheritance to their benefit from a relative in the Netherlands so Jan was assigned to travel there to investigate, hoping that this would provide the financial means so necessary to set up a gold mine. This apparently did not materialise so he returned to his claim at Roodepoort. He returned in July 1884 and carried on with his prospecting, working on the Confidence reef together with one of his late partners from Kromdraai, Field Cornet Douthwaite. They cooperated with the famous Struben brothers who were also working the Confidence reef. Jan and Douthwaite worked in the Roodepoort region with very little to show until they discovered the presence of the Banket reef on Vogelstruisfontein near the town of Florida. Their panning of samples of this reef which they called the Main Reef was so good that this persuaded the Struben brothers also to concentrate their efforts on it. Bantjes used the Struben mill to process 25 tons of the Banket reef, this produced the amazing amount of 26 ounces of gold, the first gold to come from this reef.

Jan Bantjes wanted to set up his own stamping mill, so he decided to look for finance. He contacted his friend Jan Zulch who knew a wealthy trader from Kimberley, one F.W. Alexander. Jan was looking for 2000 Pounds. Alexander at that time was on his way to Barberton to investigate opportunities there but Zulch persuaded him to speak to Jan. Alexander wanted to investigate the opportunity before committing himself to this investment so they returned to the Bantjes works. Alexander spent two days with them and took some samples himself .Very pleased with what he found he canceled his plans to go to Barberton and raised his offer to 3000 pounds for a third share in the Bantjes syndicate, and sped back to Kimberley. The samples and results he could show were the first banket reef samples that were taken to Kimberley.

Once there he put his samples on display in his shop window, and invited some of the very rich diamond miners to a panning demonstration on his premises. The panning was a stupendous success. Ackerman declared that they were on their way to the new El Dorado. This was on 13 July 1887. Among the attendees was C.J. Rhodes, J.B. Robinson, H. Eckstein, W. Knight, C.D. Rudd, G.H. Koch and H.S. Caldecott. Most of these men went on to fame and fortune in the years that followed.

Alexander immediately organised the transfer of 3000 pounds to Bantjes, securing his interest in that syndicate, and traveled to the mine on the 15th July. In the coach with him was J.B. Robinson. They traveled in the coach as far as Potchefstroom. Robinson hired a mule wagon to take them the rest of the way. He had to get to the mining area before anyone else, and used the opportunity to buy as much of the local farm lands there as he could, ending up with the most prime properties in his name. He had borrowed a large sum of money from Alfred Beit for this purpose.

That set the stage for his future success in the gold mining industry. Robinson declared later that, after he had arrived at Langlaagte, he had walked to a high spot and that there was no wagon or human being to see for miles around. He became a bit of a laughing stock, ridiculed by many because of his intuitive enthusiasm, but he regarded this as an advantage, because this kept the land prices down.

The Banket reef was evident close to the surface at Langlaagte. He was convinced the reef would extend further down, sank a shaft to 25 feet with success, and a second shaft to 360 feet where the reef was still visible. The reef extended for some 10 miles to the west and it was then possible that it went down a long way. Rhodes and Rudd, who had been at the Alexander demonstration, arrived some two weeks after Robinson. Once the extent of the reef and the value of the gold it offered up became known it was referred to as the Main Reef, the name it has held to this day.

When the good news reached the money men at Kimberley it led to the greatest gold rush the world has ever seen.

Bantjes was able to continue working the land he had, a block of 13 amalgamated claims on the Main Reef series. His mine named Bantjes Consolidated was one of the first mining companies registered on 13 September 1887, with its head office in Kimberley.

Bantjes did not do all that well, though. He did not have the money to acquire large sectors of land. His own claims did have some value but he did not have ready access to coal so absolutely necessary for processing the ore. The cost of providing coal transport from the Florida station and of treating the pyritous ores would have left him with very little profit, if any.

It appears that he approached JB Robinson who subsequently bought the his mining operation. Details are not very clear except for the fact that the company directorate in1892 consisted of JB Robinson, R Hinrichsen, GH Goch, DJ Haarhoff, M Marcus and H Eckstein. So Jan Gerritze Bantjes and FW Alexander were no longer involved. The board had decided in 1891 to shut down the works till rail services would improve and systems for the treatment of pyritic content would improve. From 1891 Robinson, the most important mining magnate, was no longer on the board. The board decided to shut down the works in about 1891 until transport and other facilities would make it’s operation financially viable. It subsequently became part of the Consolidated Main Reef Estate mines which was subsequently closed in the 1970’s.

Several varying claims have been made as to was the first to discover the main ‘Banket’ reef in the Witwatersrand, some plainly imaginative. What is most important is that Jan Gerritze Bantjes was the first person to properly determine the value contained in this reef. Most of the other reefs worked here and in Barberton contained visible gold, but the Banket formation was different. Banket is a bit like a soup with many flavours. It contains small amounts of several different metals and other materials in the ”matrix” surrounding the visible quartz pebbles that are its most distinguishing feature. Gold is one of the rarest constituents of the Banket. A ton of ore may well contain something like 10 grams of gold, (quoted as 6.5 penny weights) but this can vary. What makes it worth working the Banket reef is the monetary value of the gold content. So-called “visible” gold often occurs as ‘hackly’ grains in the conglomerate but the gold content is only revealed in the reduction process after the ore has been milled. So the stories of someone “kicking open” and revealing gold in the Banket are of doubtful credibility. Young boys were known to rescue sometimes spherical pebbles from oxidised exposed parts of the reef and using them to play marbles long before the miners started serious work on this reef. Had they seen gold on the pebbles they would surely have told their dads about it!

The man often credited with being the first person to discover the gold bearing banket reef told a story how he crushed some banket reef in a frying pan and so revealed the gold content. If that were true then there would have been no need for those incredibly large and noisy hammer mills used by the mining companies. What he had in his frying pan was most likely some quartz reef which was common and already mined by others in the area. I have seen and handled some of this quartz reef. The gold and the pyrities are clearly visible.

The Jan Gerritze Bantjes’ history is of particular interest to me. My father worked on the Bantjes mine and I grew up on the Bantjes estate from an early age. The estate was surrounded on all sides with wide open fields that contained several small incline shafts. Lots of opportunities to explore despite the warnings of our parents! I started school at the Struben School which had been built by the Struben brothers.

The sequence of events is clear:

1. Bantjes was aware of the Banket reef in 1882, long before others claimed finding it. He was convinced that it held real value, whether this was instinct or not, he was determined to find it.

2. During 1886 he found the Banket on his own claim. Having no mill he had to share his knowledge with Struben who, on seeing the amazing results, gave up his work on the confidence reef and then concentrated on the Banket.

3. Bantjes needed money for a small mill to process his own ore and was put into contact with with FW Alexander, a wealthy Kimberley trader, who checked Bantjes’ proposal and, seeing the results, upped his offer for a share in the Bantjes mine. Alexander changed his intentions of going to Barberton and rushed back to his shop in Kimberly where he spread the news to some rich Diamond magnates.

4. Among these gentlemen was JB Robinson who had lost a lot of money in Kimberley. Robinson saw an opportunity to improve his lot in the Witwatersrand. He borrowed a significant amount of money from Alfred Beit, who he knew well.

5. Robinson rushed to the Rand and did some checking, liked the results, and proceeded to buy all the land he could get hold of in the projected line of the Banket reef. Most of the real money men from Kimberley were still keen on Barberton and they left him virtually alone in his spending spree – laughed at him, even!

The rest is history. Barberton soon dried up. Robinson became one of the world’s richest men, not only due to the gold he extracted but also because the land he had picked up cheaply was now worth a fortune. Beit’s generosity also gave him a nice return – the 20 000 pounds he had lent Robinson backed by shares in the Robinson mine, was now worth two million pounds!

Jan Gerritze Bantjes died aged 71 in October 1914. On his death notice there was a note that the value of his estate did not exceed 300 Pounds.

He was most probably the person who gave the Banket reef it’s name. It was Dutch, he came from a very Dutch family. I grew up in an Afrikaans family, we never used the term and I knew no-one else who even knew what it meant. The English miners called it the Rotten reef, until he revealed it’s value.

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