Honours 2003 Field Excursion


Morning tea at Matjiesfontein	Constant reminder of the absent starter motor	Assembled and kitted out for the first underground visit to the Du Toits Pan diamond mine, Kimberley	Service shaft of Du Toits Pan and Bultfontein diamond mines, Kimberley

Welcome sign at the shaft station, Du Toits Pan, Kimberley	Cosy travelling in the cage, Du Toits Pan mine, Kimberley	Relating the intricacies of mining kimberlite, Du Toits Pan mine	Complex migmatitic amphibolites of the Archaean basement, Du Toits Pan mine, Kimberley

Jock Robey explains garnet peridotites at the Bultfontein Dumps	Striking blue kyanite in a mantle eclogite	Gathering peridotite nodules at the Bultfontein Dumps, Kimberly	Kimberly Mine, or better known as the Big Hole

Alluvial gravels of the Vaal River near Barkly West contain diamonds	Washing and processing diamondiferous gravels, Vaal River near Barkly West	Vibrating grease table and its stream of heavy mineral concentrates	Polished and striated glacial pavement carved by the Dwyka ice sheets on a bedrock of Ventersdorp lavas, Nooigedacht

Overturned quartzites of the Witwatersrand Supergroup dipping towards the centre of the Vredefort Dome	Estimating the palaeocurrent direction in the fluvial strata of the Witwatersrand Supergroup, Vredefort	Backdrop of Archaean granitic gneisses seamed with pseudotachylite, Otavi Quarry, Vredefort	Dark xenolith choked pseudotachylite vein network in Archaean basement granitic gneisses, Otavi Quarry, Vredefort

Early morning introduction to the Witwatersrand gold reefs, South Deep mine	Portal to the deep crust, South Deep gold mine	Concrete head gear, South Deep gold mine	Chair lifting down a major decline, South Deep gold mine

Thick coarsely bedded conglomerates of the gold bearing Witwatersrand Supergroup, South Deep mine	Witwatersrand conglomerates	Interbedded conglomeratic reefs and finer grained quartzites, Witwatersrand Supergroup, South Deep gold mine	Quartz veins in dark Ventersdorp Contact Reef congloerates, South Deep gold mine

Massive dragline removing the overburden, Middelburg coal mine	Extracting the coal while the dragline continues exposing the seam along strike, Middelburg mine	Detail of the stratigraphy in the highwall of Middelburg coal mine	Huge 150 ton capacity haul trucks transport the coal from face to plant, Middelburg mine

Spontaneous combustion smoke rises from coal dumps in front of the Hendrina power station	Sun sets over the Mpumalanga escarpment, with cliffs of Transvaal quartzites giving way to the Archaean basement	Dusk settles over the Kaap Valley on the way to Berberton	Diabase dykes in weathered Archaean granitoids, Nelshoogte Pass near Badplaas

Approaching Nickel country through the SAPPI forests	Nkomati Nickel mine nestled in the SAPPI pine forests of the Mpumalanga escarpment	Safety pep talk from the Chief Geologist of Nkomati Mine	Contact between calc-silicate metasediments and massive sulphide, NkomatiNi-Cu-PGE MIne

Massive sulphide horizon within calc-seilicate metasediments, Nkomati Mine	Contact between massive sulphide and basement Archaean granite, Nkomati Mine	Underground traverses can be tough!!	Syenite plugs form lone hills ruising above the lowveld plain, Kruger Park

Rocky terrain around a syenite plug, Kruger Park	Impala gazes from amongst the syenite, Kruger Park	View east towards the Lebombo ridge built of resistant rhyolite	The Olifants River meanders across the lowveld plain underlain by Karoo basalts, Kruger Park

Low water exposes the bed of the Olifants River in winter, Kruger Park	Pale rhyolite bedrock in the Olifants River, with several dark dolerite dykes	Dolerite dykes cutting rhyolite in the bed of the Olifants River, Kruger Park	The team chill out during a Saturday afternoon in Kruger Park, Olifants Camp

The awesome open pit of the Phalaborwa copper mine	New headgear signal the transition to underground mining at Phalaborwa	Rock dumps and tailings dams rise above the lowveld plain at Phalaborwa	Huge slimes deposits start to dwarf the syenite hills that surround Phalaborwa

Carbonatite veins in fenitised granite gneiss country rock to the Phalaborwa alkaline igneous complex	Approaching the Transvaal escarpment built of Black Reef quartzites	Unconformity between the Archaean granite basement and the basal Transvaal starta, Abel Erasmus Pass	Strike view of the layering, eastern Bushveld Complex

North-east sector of the Bushveld Complex between Burgersfort and Chuniespoort	View into the Sandsloot open pit at PPRust Platinum Mine	View of the south wall showing the westward dip of the footwall calc-silicate metasediments and igneous layering, Sandsloot open pit, PPRust	Eastern highwall of the Sandsloot open pit exposing parapyroxenites and mineralised pyrpxenites, PPRust platinum mine

Geotechnical instruction at the mine face, Sandsloot open pit, PPRust	Oblique joint planes dip across the layering and define the western wall of the Sandsloot open pit	New open pit development north of Sandsloot, PPRust platinum mine	Early benches within the new pit north of Sandsloot, PPRust

Headgear of the service shaft, Northam platinum mine	Secondary crusher, Northam platinum mine	Display of Merensky reef types and underground working model, Northam platinum mine	Huge excavations into the iron ore mountains around Thabazimbi

Mine dumps surround the iron ore mining town of Thabazimbi	Manyane Camp in the Pilanesberg National Park	Red syenite outcrops, Pilanesberg Complex	Inspecting the red syenite geological stop display, Pilanesberg Complex

View point on the south shore of Mankwe Dam, Pilanesberg National Park	Receeding shoreline of the Mankwe Dam, Pilanesberg Park	Mankwe Dam in the centre of the Pilnesberg Complex	Final assembly at the Karoo fossil trail, Beaufort West