78 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION B. 



Gordonia, and also in some of the pans on the Grlqiialand West 

 side of the Kalahari. 



Great stores of mineral wealth may be locked up in this 

 tract of country, but there is little probability of any important 

 discoveries in the near future. 



Conclusion. 



In concluding this brief and necessarily imperfact survey of 

 the potential mineral resources of the Union, I would remind you 

 that Africa has ever been a land of surprises. 



All things considered, it is improbable that any discovery 

 rivalling in importance that of the Kimberley diamond mines or 

 of the Witwatersrand goldfield remains to be made, but there 

 is no knowing what may be in store ; and when it is remembered 

 that the past decade has witnessed the discovery of the asbestos 

 and corundum deposits of the Northern Transvaal, the phosphate 

 occurrences of Saldanha Bay, two small diamond mines and a 

 number of promising deposits of tin and other metals, and that 

 vast tracts endowed by nature with geological conditions favour- 

 able to the development of mineral wealth are as yet virtually 

 unattacked by the pick of the prospector, you will, I think, 

 agree with me that there is every warrant for the most sanguine 

 expectations in regard to the future. 



