Jade Davenport has written a book called Digging Deep – which is about the history of South Africa’s great mining industry, published by Jonathan Ball. The origins of some of today’s great mining houses can be found in South Africa – companies like BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Gold Fields and of course, perhaps the most famous of all, De Beers. The country was once most famous for its diamonds but three commodities comprise today 75% of the income generated by mining in South Africa: gold, platinum and coal. Nevertheless, diamonds are still important, and De Beers believes there are important unknown deposits still to be found.

While coal is mined in South Africa in a similar manner to that used elsewhere in the world, the country’s gold and platinum mines are unique: gently dipping tabular deposits with enormous horizontal extent, mined to depths hardly seen anywhere else on earth.

For many years South Africa was the largest gold producer in the world, and it remains the biggest producer of PGMs, though that sector is sadly riven by unrest, sadly. Nevertheless South Africa has a mining history of an epic nature.

Not only has the country given birth to some great mines, and mining houses, these developments have resulted in very strong and innovative  engineering and consultancy companies. Historically, the mining industry in South Africa has undertaken its own research. Out of this grew the South African mining supply industry among which there are companies that are global mining technology leaders.

Before the advent of its great mineral revolution in the latter half of the 19th century, South Africa was a sleepy colonial backwater whose unpromising landscape was seemingly devoid of any economic potential. It was the discovery and exploitation of first diamonds in 1870 and then gold in 1886 that proved the catalyst to perhaps the greatest mineral revolution the world has ever known, which transformed South Africa into the greatest industrialised power on the African continent. According to the publisher this book is the first “complete history of South Africa’s phenomenal mineral revolution spanning a period of more than 150 years, from its earliest commercial beginnings to the present day, incorporating seven of the major commodities that have been exploited.”

Digging Deep describes the establishment and unparalleled growth of mining, tracing the history of the industry from its humble beginnings where copper was first mined on a commercial basis in Namaqualand in the Cape Colony in the early 1850s, to the discovery and exploitation of the country’s other major mineral commodities. However, this is also the story of how mining gave rise to modern South Africa and how it compelled the country to develop and progress the way in which it did. It also incorporates the stories of the visionary men – Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Beit, Barney Barnato, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, Sammy Marks and Hans Merensky – who pioneered and shaped the development of the industry on which modern South Africa was built.

It is sobering to reflect that between 1980 and 2008, the average growth rate of the South African mining sector was -0.2%; and its contribution to average annual GDP growth over this period was -1%. Over the same period, the share of mining in the country’s exports declined from 27 to 16%, and in the country’s GDP from 13 to 6%. In 1980, mining provided 11% of employment opportunities in South Africa. Currently it is only around 2%.

This book explains the wonderful legacy of the South African mining industry, a history that can provide many lessons for the future.

Jade Davenport studied at the University of Cape Town and has an MA (cum laude) in Historical Studies.

ISBN 9781868424238.  http://www.jonathanball.co.za