Page 7 - Bulletin 14 2010
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previous stony ore from which something was obtained. …Meanwhile the
silversmiths reported that after making many attempts they could not obtain
anything at all from the ore. They also thought that that which they had
th
obtained from it on the 6 instant was not real silver, for though it appeared to
be good when tested with touch-stone and touch-needle, the sample, when
applied to the fire, emitted smoke and became black. We nevertheless sent
them out to-day to fetch a good load of the ore for dispatch to Batavia so that
it may be tested there, for we do not think we have the right refiners or
mineralogists here. 7
As Van Riebeeck’s Journal contains no report on the results of the tests on the putative ore,
which were doubtless carried out in Batavia, one must conclude that the ‘right refiners and
mineralogists’ there had found nothing of value. Thus ended the Cape’s first attempt at a
mining venture. Like so many other similar undertakings throughout history it had started
with high hopes and ended in disappointment.
These early attempts to find silver having proved fruitless, we read no more of mining at the
Cape until the late 1680s, by which time van Riebeeck had been followed by Simon van der
Stel as first Governor of the Cape. On his celebrated expedition to Namaqualand in search of
copper Van Der Stel had been accompanied by Master Miner Frederick Mattheus Van
Werlinghof, and the latter appears to have been the driving force in a much more ambitious
mining venture namely, sinking of a shaft sixteen fathoms [i.e. c. 30 m] deep on the farm then
known as Wittebomen. (It is probable that this shaft was located in what is now High
Constantia, but unfortunately attempts over the years by a number of people, including the
author, to locate the shaft have proven fruitless.)
The reasons for the selection of this site are not recorded and the geology of the area certainly
provides no hope of success. Sadly, in spite of the substantial expenditure that must have been
incurred in the sinking of this shaft no ore was found for we read in the Cape Council’s Diary
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of the 8 of June 1686:
Resolutions [The Miners working at Witteboomen report negative results, and
their transfer to Sumatra: Investigated] . . ., 8
st
while the same diary reports on the 1 of July that:
