PODCAST: Why SA owes mining everything – author Jade Davenport talks about her Tour de Force

The history of mining in South Africa is virtually synonymous with the history of South Africa, so important has the industry been to the nation's development. In this fascinating interview, author Jade Davenport outlines her recent book on the history of South African mining, starting with the arrival of the Dutch settlers and ranging right up to the complex web of companies, deals, government agencies, and personalities that characterise mining in South Africa today. All South Africans owe it to themselves to learn something about this history – it's impossible to understand how the country ended up as it is today without the broader picture of the role that mining and minerals have played in our history. – FD

JADE DAVENPORT: I decided to marry my love of history, which has always been my first love, with my interest in mining by doing a Master of Arts degree at UCT, focusing on an aspect of Cape colonial mining history. About six months after I graduated with my Master's degree, I was approached by Jonathan Ball publishers to write a history of mining in South Africa; a general history – a popular history, which I accepted.

ALEC HOGG: How long did it take you to get all the information together?

JADE DAVENPORT: Because the book covers so many different commodities – seven different commodities – I researched and wrote as I went along, so the whole project took me about three years to do.

ALEC HOGG: It looks like it. It's a tour de force. That's the best way I can describe it, and taking this industry in South Africa from almost when the Dutch settlers arrived.

JADE DAVENPORT: Yes, absolutely. The primary reason that the Dutch came to South Africa, was obviously to set up a victualing station, but the discovery of minerals was always at the back of their minds. They did send out certain search parties, but as we all know the Cape is not really renowned for its mineral deposits.

ALEC HOGG: So they were kind of in the wrong part of the country to look…

JADE DAVENPORT: Absolutely.

ALEC HOGG: But they did see people – local people – wearing copper.

JADE DAVENPORT: Yes, the Namakwa people who came down to trade… It was at least a six-day journey, and a three-month journey by ox-wagon.

ALEC HOGG: Eventually, that was the first mining that happened on the subcontinent.

JADE DAVENPORT: Yes, it took 200 years from the discovery of copper by the European settlers, to the actual advent of commercial mining because the logistical challenges of mining in such a remote part of the country were just overwhelming.

ALEC HOGG: Back then, South Africa, as we know it today was very much a backwater.

JADE DAVENPORT: Absolutely. The main driver of our economy was agriculture and sheep farming, and in Natal, we had sugarcane and cotton farming.

ALEC HOGG: The exciting stuff started, of course. We all know Cecil John Rhodes and the discovery of diamonds. Was that the kick-starter?

JADE DAVENPORT: I would say so…for the mineral revolution as we know it, but I just get a bit annoyed that there's a general perception in this country that mining started with the discovery of diamonds, and that's not really accurate. As I say in the book, it did start in the 1850's with copper in Namakwaland. Even though it was such a small industry, it was our kick-starter.

ALEC HOGG: It was also world-famous. You talk about the international investors and the companies that were founded at the time, and I guess that's a recurring theme of mining in South Africa; that there's always been a desire or a view that you can become very rich from taking stuff out of the ground.

JADE DAVENPORT: Absolutely. There's a whole number of excitement bubbles, if you will, that follow the discovery of commodities all over the country.

ALEC HOGG: Just take us through the reaction of the indigenous people to the discovery of gold, in particular. I don't just mean the black indigenous people, but the Boers as they were in those days. They didn't seem to be terribly excited about the fact that there was gold, excepting that it could help them with their taxes.

JADE DAVENPORT: Well, at first they were absolutely horrified. They trekked from the Cape to escape the British and they believed – quite correctly, as it would appear – that the British would follow the gold, so once gold was discovered they'd have a whole load of British and foreign uitlanders coming into the country, and usurping their territory, which is really what did happen.

ALEC HOGG: It started off in a very difficult place to live, let alone mine, in the Barberton area.

JADE DAVENPORT: Absolutely. The whole Eastern Transvaal area if you will, which is now Mpumalanga, was just absolutely horrendous. You had Tsetse flies, malaria, lions etcetera, and these people had to camp out in the open to search for gold. It is romantic in a way, but at the same time, it's absolutely frightening what they did for their love of gold.

ALEC HOGG: The desire for, I suppose, getting rich as well. How many people did make a lot of money out of mining in South Africa?

JADE DAVENPORT: In terms of diggers – not many – half a dozen, maybe. The interesting thing with gold is that it's a bit of a gambling phenomenon. You'll excavate your claim until you're blue in the face and if you don't find any gold, you'll just keep excavating in the hope that you'll find the gold, but it doesn't necessarily always happen. It's a feature of Lady Luck, I would suppose.

ALEC HOGG: Tell us about Hans Merensky and the role that he played in this country.

JADE DAVENPORT: Hans Merensky is an interesting character. He is South Africa's preeminent geologist and he played such a fundamental role in the discovery of platinum and the shaping of the initial platinum industry, especially on the eastern limb where Mashesheng is now. He also played quite a big role in discovering diamonds and proving the existence of alluvial diamonds on the Namakwaland coast.

ALEC HOGG: So he was a man without whom…well, I guess eventually these things would have been discovered, or not.

JADE DAVENPORT: Yes, well they would have been discovered, but he just made it look so easy, if you will.

ALEC HOGG: Is he your favourite personality?

JADE DAVENPORT: No. I do have a lot of respect for Hans Merensky and if you read his biography, he went through tremendous highs and lows in his lifetime, but my personal favourite character is Barney Barnato – the ruffian of the mining world.

ALEC HOGG: If he walked in here today, what would we expect to see?

JADE DAVENPORT: You'd see a very short man – quite a funny character. I believe he was quite personable and he was from the East End of London, which speaks volumes I suppose, in terms of people's characters. He was always a man that would…

ALEC HOGG: Try new things.

JADE DAVENPORT: Yes.

ALEC HOGG: Have a gamble.

JADE DAVENPORT: Absolutely. He was a gambler and he was a boxer. I suppose that's why he did so well, because he was willing to gamble huge amounts of…not only money, but also confidence in diamonds and gold when no one else had the confidence.

ALEC HOGG: At a time, as well, where you needed that – you needed to make those bets. What about the Oppenheimers? Sir Ernest Oppenheimer does feature well in your book.

JADE DAVENPORT: Yes, Ernest Oppenheimer was a visionary man. He, in my opinion, did more than any other mining magnate to actually shape the development of gold and diamonds in this country, which for most of the 20th century; the country's economy really relied on. His formation of Anglo American, which has also been quite a driving force in South Africa's economy, is just…

ALEC HOGG: The sale by their family for five billion dollars of the interest in Anglo American: as a historian and looking at that, I suppose that would be a bit sad.

JADE DAVENPORT: No, absolutely. Growing up, I always associated De Beer's with the Oppenheimers and it was only when I became interested in mining that I realised it was actually Cecil Rhodes that started De Beers. I didn't really draw the connection as a young person. De Beer's is the Oppenheimers.

ALEC HOGG: Leapfrogging to today…where we are in South Africa today, is there still opportunity in the mining sector?

JADE DAVENPORT: I believe so. I believe that all of our high-grade world-class deposits have been discovered and are being mined, but there are many opportunities for small-scale mining left. I just feel that the mining industry is being bombarded by a myriad of challenges at the moment and they cannot actually focus on the core task of mining.

ALEC HOGG: Jade Davenport is the author of 'Digging Deep', a new book that's just hit us, on the history of South African mining.