Except for the lime kilns there are two other interesting sites to see here. Against the mountainside there are two fenced off areas. The lower fenced off area is one of the old mine shafts while the other is the sire of three older inverted lime kilns.
The inverted kiln site has very deep holes and extra care should be taken around the top. It is advisable not to let small children visit the inverted kiln site.
HISTORIC OLD LIMESTONE MINE IN EASTERN TRANSVAAL
(Article by Clyde B Johnson) STAR, Monday 28 September 1970.
MACHADODORP – There was a time when the old limestone mine at Ngodwana echoed to the sound of gunpowder charges and miner’s picks. But that was more than 70 years ago.
As any metallurgist can tell you, cyanide replaced burnt lime in the extracting process of gold towards the end of the last century.
But the limestone in its shafts, the rusted cocopans, steel cables and pieces of machinery and metal scattered about the countryside all tell the story of a one highly productive and active mine.
Situated in the heart of the picturesque Elands River Valley the mine is on the farm “Grootgeluk” belonging to Mr R G Murray and his brother.
It was started by a German immigrant, mr G Goddard, shortly after the discovery of gold in the Eastern Transvaal. Using brick, round stones and wet lime, Goddard’s specially imported Italian builders constructed the 60ft kilns. No cement was used but the stonework was reinforced with steel straps with adjustable buckles.
The 16 ft chimneys were made of hardened steel plates imported from Germany.
With the kilns completed, the mine was ready for production. Gunpowder was used for blasting, but most mining was done by hand simply by following the thick white seams in the mountainside. Mule-drawn cocpans brought the lime to the surface – sometimes a distance of 21/2 miles – where it was processed and used for extracting gold from ore.
With the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand the lime was railed to the bustling goldfields on the newly completed Z.A.S.M Railway in 1859. Mr Goddard’s business boomed.
Then early in 1899 the mine at “Grootgeluk” came to a sudden standstill. Cyanide was found more suitable in the gold-mining process and the demand for burnt lime became less and less, until finally it disappeared.
Realizing his mine had come to an end, Mr Goddard packed his bags and without even paying his 220 workmen, he secretly left for Germany. The mine was subsequently declared insolvent and the more expensive machinery was sold by public auction. Shortly afterwards the farm was bought by Dr George Everitt Murray, President Paul Kruger’s personal physician.
And, as has been proved in the years that followed, “Grootgeluk’s” luck lay in agriculture and not in industry.
“From time to time there have been several efforts to get some or other form of mine started again, but all failed” said Mr. Murray. “The last was a syndicate who tried their hand at mining white marble, but this also proved unsuccessful.”
Now, with the exception of 50 morgan, the farm has been sold to a paper manufacturing concern, who, in all probability, will convert it into huge plantations. While smoke may never rise from their chimneys again, the sturdy stone kilns at Grootgeluk will stand for many years to come – a constant reminder of the mine that died because there was no demand for its product.
LIME KILNS, NGODWANA, NELSPRUIT DISTRICT
(National Monuments Council pamphlet, 30 May 1980)
The earliest reference to the limestone mine at Ngodwana which has been traced to date, appears in the 1879 annual report of the South African Republic’s Head of Mining: “In a hillock to the south of the (railway) line at K.M. 170, a pure, white lime is being recovered. This lime is taken from cavities in the dolomite, of which the greater part has again been filled by dripstone formations”. In 1897 the farm Grootgeluk, on which the mine is situated, was owned by Barend Gabriel Oosthuizen, but it is not known whether the lime was mined by Oosthuizen himself. However, the person who worked the mine intensively and who was probably responsible for the construction of the three kilns, was Adolf Frederich Maximillian Gotthard, presumably a German immigrant.
Although 10 morgen of Grootgeluk was not transported on Gotthard’s name until 12 December 1902, it is known that he had already been busy with mining activities on the farm in January 1902, because at that time his company, the Godwana Limestone Works, had already existed.
It is said that Gotthard made use of the services of Italian artisans to construct the kilns. This may very well be true, for in January 1902 an Italian, Joseph Connotto, applied for a railway permit to take up duty at the Godwana Limestone Works. It is not clear whether all three kilns were erected simultaneously. The building materials differ from one kiln to another, which indicates that some time may have elapsed between the construction of the respective kilns.
At one stage this mine provided the whole Baberton District with high quality lime and it is significant that only the so-called “white lime”, as opposed to the “blue lime” which is also found there, was slaked in the kilns. White lime was given preference to blue limein metallurgical processes, as well as in the reclamation of gold. The pure lime produced an Ngodwana (the purest samples show a calsium carbonate content of 97%) therefore played an important role in the gold extracting process on the Baberton gold-fields before the cyanide process took over.
In August 1909 Gotthard bought from Oosthuizen the remaining 2 525 morgen of Grootgeluk, but the once profitable mine soon did not come up to expectations. It is said that Gotthard quietly left the Transvaal for Germany without paying his 220 workers. The mine was declared insolvent and in 1914 George Murray bought Grootgeluk from the insolvent estate.
Although efforts haven been made from time to time to reopen the mine, nothing much has been accomplished. However, Sappi Limited, the present owners of Grootgeluk, have restored one of the kilns and have tastefully beautified the site.
The three kilns were declared national monuments in 1980.