A better look behind FTLM mining tourism sites
TJATE
The Platinum Stream Tourism Route that lies within the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM), is giving tourists the opportunity to visit some of the historically significant mines in the area.
The local municipality serves a long and proud history of mining exploration, which is also a place of majestic beauty with regal mountains, lush valleys and meandering rivers.
Under its soil, lies vast deposits of precious metal – so vast that they today contain the largest reserves of platinum group metals in the world.
The minerals were first founded by Hans Merensky, a world-renowned mining explorer who was born in Botshabelo Mission Station in 1871, the mission station was established as a result of a fall out between Reverend Alexander Merensky and King Sekhukhune I years earlier in 1864.
The interconnection between historic heritage of Bapedi Polity, the Berlin Missionary work and mining exploration will always play out in many era-defining events.
Therefore, the story behind Platinum Stream is located at the epicenter of the Bapedi Empire and has since been there during the reign of King Sekhukhune I.
The Platinum Stream is a tourist route designed to unite Sekhukhune’s natural beauty and rich heritage with the mining activities in the area for mining and history enthusiasts.
The mining aspect of the route will give tourists the opportunity to visit the oldest mine in Sekhukhune as well as discovering the ancient mine workings, with interpretation of historical facts. There are several mines within the area that will give the tourist a true mining experience.
For those mining enthusiasts and history fanatics alike, a visit to the oldest mine in Sekhukhune District, the Marula Merensky Mine, owned by Implats, is a definite must.
Platinum was first discovered in the area by Merensky on the nearby farm Maandagshoek in the 1920’s. The Merensky Mine was one of the first operations to have been developed on the relatively under-exploited eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa.
King Sekhukhune I, of the Marota Empire, later expelled Berlin Missionary Alexandra Merensky and by 1865, Botshabelo Mission Station was established near Middelburg, giving refuge to Merensky and King Sekhukhune’s younger brother, Johannes Dinkwanyane.
Hans Merensky was born in Botshabelo on 16 March 1871, where his father, Alexander Merensky, an ethnographer and author, was a resident of the missionary. Keenly interested in minerals and enjoying outdoor living, he studied mining geology after finishing his schooling in Germany. In 1904, he took a year’s leave to visit South Africa to conduct some geological surveys in the Transvaal.
Merensky discovered tin near Pretoria and reported to the Premier Diamond Mine regarding possible mining prospects. He worked for several mining companies and Friedlaender & Co. sent him to Madagascar to investigate a reported discovery of gold, which turned out to be false.
He resigned from his job in Germany and moved to Johannesburg, where he became a successful consulting geologist. In 1913, Merensky went bankrupt as a result of the Great Depression, and during World War I, he was called up and stationed in a camp near Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal.
After the war, the mines began employing their own geologists on a permanent basis, reducing the need for consulting geologists, and Merensky’s business suffered as a result. With the occasional support of Sir George Albu, however, he overcame this challenge and in 1924 discovered large platinum deposits in the present-day, the Fetakgomo Tubatse’s Eastern Limb Platinum Belt.
