Page 23 - Bulletin 14 2010

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“Syndicate ceased work 10 May 1912.” 24

The company’s shares on the Cape Town Stock Exchange reflected its changing fortunes;
having come on the market on 1 April 1911 at 30s. and risen rapidly to 80s by 29 April 1911,

thereafter they fell steadily until on 22 March 1912, a last lonely seller was offering his

‘Vredehoeks’ at 10s. There were no takers. 25

In August 1912, Messrs Farrar Bros. of Johannesburg entered into a prospecting contract with
the Vredehoek Syndicate and further development work was carried out inside the mine.

Farrar Bros., however, decided to abandon this option and this phase of the work ceased on 14
October 1912. Although the records are not perfectly clear – and are almost certainly

incomplete - it would appear that in its working life the mine produced something over 500

tons of ore for crushing, and that from this about 4 tons of crude concentrate resulted for
export.

In August 1913 the Deputy Inspector Mines, Kimberley District, visited the mine and
reported that “work has stopped, the winze [i.e. the vertical shaft inside the mine] from the

adit was full of water, and the roof and walls of the workings mostly covered with dust …”
However, hopes of restoring the mine to some form of operation had not completely died, for

in December it was reported that “At Cape Town work has again been resumed on the
property of the Vredehoek Tin Mining Company on the slopes of Table Mountain; the present

demand for men is, however, limited to coloured labourers for hammer and drill work.” (18) 26

Little now remained except to proceed with the formal winding up of the company. Thus on

29 December 1916, at an extraordinary general meeting of the Syndicate, a resolution was
passed voluntarily winding up the company. On 29 December 1920 a general meeting of

members of the company carried the final winding-up resolution. The liquidators, C. C.
Silberbauer and F. K. Wiener, were discharged and the winding-up of the accounts was

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confirmed.

Meanwhile, in October 1918, the Good Hope Tin Mine in Kuils River had succeeded in

obtaining most of the plant from the Vredehoek mine “at a bargain price.” Thus ended Cape