PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SIXTION H. 6/ 



adequately protected after the war, when it is probable that 

 dumping on a colossal scale will be attempted. 



Future Discoveries. 



The future of the mineral industry of South Africa, in so 

 far as it is dependent on deposits actually known or worked at 

 the present time, has already been discussed at some length in 

 the foregoing review. It remains to consider what prospects 

 the country offers in the matter of fresh discoveries. In dealing 

 with this interesting subject, it will be useful to divide the Union 

 into a number of mineral provinces — ^^that is, natural divisions, 

 which by virtue of the geological or physiographical conditions 

 prevailing within them yield, or may be expected to yield, certain 

 minerals. 



Those having even a passing acquaintance of the geological 

 features of the Union will realise that this scheme, if rigorously 

 carried out, would involve the discrimination of a large number 

 of areas, many of which, in addition to being ([uite unimportant, 

 could, owing to their small size, not be shown on the accompanying 

 map. 



For this and other reasons it is proposed to adopt the 

 following nine-fold division, though it in nearly every instance 

 involves the inclusion in the individual provinces of rocks of 

 different geological age or of widely separated areas of the same 

 formation : — 



( I ) The Witwatersrand-Ventersdorp Province. 



( 2 ) The Karroo Province. 



(3) The Transvaal Sj^stem Provinces. 



(4) The Bushveld Province. 



(5) The Old Granite-Swaziland System Provinces. 



(6) The Copper Region of Little Namaqualand. 



(7) The West Coast Province. 



(8) The Cape System Province. 



(9) The Kalahari Region. 



The boundaries of the provinces, except where actually 

 determined by geological boundary lines, are largely arbitrary. 



The Witwatersrand-V'hnti'ksdokp Province. 



The Witwatersrand-Ventersdorj) Province embraces a con- 

 siderable extent of country in the Southern Transvaal and 

 adjacent territories occupied or underlain at comparatively shallow 

 depth by the rocks of the Witwatersrand and Ventersdorp 

 systems, which for the purposes of the present address have been 

 grouped together. It includes a fairly considerable area of 

 Karroo rocks to the east and south-east of Boksburg, narrovN 

 strips of dolomite to the west of Randfontein and to the south- 

 east of Klerksdorp. and has also for convenience been made to 

 embrace the area of older granite to the north of Johannesburg, 



