PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION Jl. /I 



eastern portion of the Boshof district of the Orange Free State 

 holding out the greatest promise.* 



The Bushveld Province. 



This region coextensive with the Bushveld igneous complexf 

 yields a great variety of useful and valuable minerals, all derived 

 by differentiation or other processes of natural concentration 

 from the Bushveld granite and allied rocks. 



The following metals and minerals have been or are being 

 worked: Tin, copper, arsenic, bismuth, tungstem, lead, J^old, 

 silver, molybdenite, and trona. 



Of the important mineral deposits within the area, that 

 have not as yet been worked, but are receiving attention at the 

 present time, mention may be made of the occurrence of high- 

 grade haematite on the farm Kromdraai, south-east of Settlers — a 

 replacement deposit along a zone of fracture in felsite; the 

 chromite deposits on the farm Jachtlust No. 333, 50 miles south- 

 south-east of Pietersburg ; and the copper-nickel deposits on the 

 ifarm Vlakfontein. No. 902, west-south-west of the Pilandsberg, 

 in the Rustenburg district. 



The Vlakfontein deposits are in the form of irregular masses 

 of nickeliferous pyrrhotite containing varying amounts of copper, 

 developed along fairly well-defined parallel zones of fissure in 

 pyroxenite belonging to the marginal phase of the Bushveld 

 Igneous Complex. The zones have been followed over a con- 

 siderable distance, and are being opened up by means of shafts 

 and tunnels. The Vlakfontein ores contain small amounts of 

 platinum, and it is of interest to recall that platinum is also 

 present in the remarkable stratiform segregations of chromite 

 occurring at much the same horizon in the basic margin of the 

 Bushveld laccolite. 



Thus a series of samples of chromite taken by me to the 

 south-east and south-west of Turfgrond Station, in the Rusten- 

 burg district, assayed up to 1.5 dwts. of platinum and .15 dwt. 

 of osmium and iridium per ton. Here, as in certain other areas 

 where the chromite has been tested, the platinum metals, unfor- 

 tunately, are not uniformly distributed through it, and the 

 average values obtained by sampling were not sufficiently high 

 to warrant the exploitation of deposits, either as a source of 

 platinum or chromite. 



Having regard to the enormous extent of the deposits — they 

 crop out intermittently over a distance of fully 400 miles — it is 

 quite possible, however, that some sections of the chromite 

 " layers ' will be found to contain platinum in profitable quantities. 



The chromite itself, as previously intimated, is being opened 

 uj) on the farm JachtkiPt, situated 50 miles south-south-east of 



* Cf. The Diamond Fields of Southern Africa, p. 4. 



t For convenience it has also been made to include the VVaterberg 

 Plateau, and the igneous and sedimentary rocks of Karroo age underlying 

 the Springbok Flats. 



