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Location: 11 km N from Fochville, South Africa
Constantia Office Park Cnr 14th Avenue & Hendrik Potgieter Road Bridgeview House Ground floorPrivate Bag X5 Westonaria 1780Weltevreden ParkSouth Africa1709
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Driefontein is located along the West Wits Line that forms part of the Far West Rand of the Witwatersrand Basin. The Witwatersrand Basin comprises a 6.000m vertical thickness of sedimentary rocks, extending laterally for some 350km northeast to southwest by some 150km northwest to southeast, generally dipping at shallow angles toward the centre of the Witwatersrand Basin. The Witwatersrand Basin outcrops at its northern extent near Johannesburg, but to the west, south and east it is overlaid by up to 4,000m of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Gold mineralisation occurs within laterally extensive quartz-pebble conglomerates called reefs, which are developed above unconformable surfaces. As a result of faulting and primary controls on mineralisation processes, the goldfields are not continuous and are characterised by the presence or dominance of different reef units. The reefs are generally less than two metres in thickness and are widely considered to represent laterally extensive braided fluvial deposits or unconfined flow deposits, which formed along the flanks of alluvial fan systems around the edge of an inland sea. Dykes and sills of dolerite composition are developed within the Witwatersrand Basin and are associated with several intrusive and extrusive events.Gold generally occurs in native form, often associated with pyrite, carbon and uranium. Pyrite and gold within the reefs display a variety of forms, some obviously indicative of detrital transport within the depositional system and others suggesting crystallisation within the reef itself.The Driefontein operation exploits three primary reefs, namely the Ventersdorp contact reef (VCR) located at the top of the Central Rand Group, the Carbon leader reef (CLR) near the base of the group, and the Middelvlei reef (MVR), which stratigraphically occurs some 50 to 75 metres above the CLR.The VCR strikes east-north-east and has a regional dip of about 21° to the south-southeast. CLR strikes west-south-west and dips to the south at approximately 25°; MVR strikes west-south-west, with a regional dip of approximately 22° to the south-southeast. The reefs are generally less than two metres thick, and are widely considered to represent extensive fluvial fans, and as such they are laterally continuous with clear patterns of mineralisation governed by sedimentary characteristics. Most of the mining takes place on the VCR, which constitutes 59% of the Mineral Reserves, the CLR 33%, and MVR the remaining 8%.All these reefs are disrupted by structures which are faults and dykes. These structures have varying displacements from centimetres to hundreds of metres and can affect mining to various extents.
