Before the advent of its great mineral revolution in the latter half of the nineteenth century, South Africa was a sleepy colonial backwater whose unpromising landscape was seemingly devoid of any economic potential. Yet, just beneath the dusty surface of the land lay the richest treasure trove of gold, diamonds, platinum, coal and a host of other metals and minerals that has ever been discovered in one country. It was the discovery and exploitation of, first, diamonds in 1870 and then gold in 1886 that proved to be the catalyst to the greatest mineral revolution the world has ever known, which transformed South Africa into the greatest industrialised power on the African continent.
Jade Davenport has, for the first time, written the 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 John 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.