1. Professor Bruce Cairncross Department of Geology
Okiep Copper District, Namaqualand: Europeans’ earliest mining efforts in South Africa
Professor Bruce Cairncross
Department of Geology

4. At least 26 mines …

5. GEOLOGY……

6. Narrap mine steam engine Concordia mine dump
Spektakel
COPPER MINES .....
Narrap mine steam engine
Concordia mine dump

7. The Okiep Copper district “Firsts”
First economic deposit “discovered” by Europeans in South Africa in1685 (First European settlement in 1652 – hence copper “discovered” only 33 years later)
First mine opened by Europeans in South Africa
First South African mining company formed in1852
First South African geological report written on the copper deposits
First South African geological map in South Africa – the Namaqualand copper fields.

9. Copper from
Spektakel mine

10. Discovery site: Sketch from
van der Stel’s expedition notes
Discovery site Aug 2011
Concordia:
National Monument

11. The Okiep Copper district “Firsts”
Springbok
August 2011
The Okiep Copper district “Firsts”
Blue Mine

12. Blue Mine Plaque

13. One of the first South African share certificates (1854)

14. Geologist and Road Maker
Andrew Geddes Bain:
Geologist and Road Maker
*****
First Geological Report
Written in South Africa

15. (1859)
(1856)

17. Charles Bell Surveyor General: Cape Colony 1848 to 1872
Surveyor, artist, designer, businessman

23. Okiep August 2011
Okiep

24. Nababeep mine, August 2011

25. Nababeep mine chalcanthite
Jubilee mine, collected 1993

26. Tweefontein (left 2011; below 1993)
Jan Coetzee mine (2011)

27. The Jan Coetzee mine Located 11 km north of Nababeep
First worked in 1888 (Cape Copper Company), abandoned 1907
(several prospecting pits an 80-m deep shaft)
Reopened in 1964 by the O’Kiep Copper Company and finally closed in 1971
1966 spectacular quartz crystal “cave” opened - 12 X 12 metres across and 6 metres high
Floor, walls and roof covered by thousands of crystals and thousands lying loose on the floor
Estimated at several tons of quartz, ~ 50,000 specimens!!
Largest almost 2m long (185 cm) and weighed 250kg.

28. ( a rich mineralogical heritage)
Some Okiep minerals
( a rich mineralogical heritage)
Ferroaxinite
Chalcocite
Gypsum
Calcite
Calcite
Chalcopyrite
Quartz

29. Jan Coetzee Mine 1968

30. Jan Coetzee mine 1994

31. Jan Coetzee mine 2011

32. Nababeep mine smelter chimney, August 2011

33. Nababeep ...

34. Nababeep Mining Museum
Karin Janecke - Curator

36. Thank you!