Following an investigation into the KwaMachi community’s claims of having found gold in a quarry near Harding, on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, the Council for Geoscience (CGS) has established that there is no economic gold in either the quarry or its surroundings.
All concentrations were significantly low and within normal values in the rocks, CGS said last week.
The council explained that mineral sulphides such as pyrite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite, cobalite, sphalerite and galena occurred in the quarry and that pyrite and chalcopyrite had similar appearances to gold and could easily be mistaken for the precious metal.
The community of KwaMachi last year claimed to have found gold in the area. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe tasked the CGS to investigate the veracity of the claims.
In June 2018, the CGS conducted investigations at the quarry.
In the first investigation, rock samples were collected and analysed at the Mintek laboratory, in Johannesburg. The 150 m by 150 m quarry was used primarily as a source of aggregates for improving the condition of the local roads.
Although the first set of results showed that the quarry did not contain gold, the CGS decided to conduct further investigations.
Pending geological evidence of the purported gold, the quarry was closed to allow the CGS to conduct a second investigation, which was conducted in October 2018.