Friday, September 10, 2010

9/9/2010

Day 3 Ramblings

My first full day at Klipwal. After arriving last night in the dark, I woke up to a view to the South across the Pongolo river valley towards dry and rugged terrain. Across this river is the Ithala game reserve, home to the “Big 5” of the African wildlife. My boss Nick lives next door and this morning he gave me a ride in an old gutted-out Land Rover Defender to the top of the hill where the main offices of the mine are. This is the vehicle I’ll finally learn how to drive stick in. No place better to learn than on steep dirt tracks on the side of a mountain!

When we got to the offices, I met the whole of the management staff of the mine. They all speak Afrikaans as well as English so I’ll have to learn fast, but they were all very friendly and seemed happy to see a new face. Ben is the “underground manager” and is the expert on everything happening within the mine, so he’s setting me up to go underground on Monday of next week so I can get face to face with the geology.

I’m very lucky to have been set up in their surveying office, which had been empty before but is a massive office with tons of supplies and maps and cross-sections of the mine area. I should explain now that Lloyd bought this mine very recently, so all the staff have only been here for 3 months or less. Before this the mine was closed for almost two years and the previous staff left a lot of goodies behind for me. Now the price of gold is ridiculously high, hence the mine is economically viable and open again.

The management crew, including myself consist of about 15 people. Then the mine employs about 50 to 60 locals from the adjacent villages to do things like security, secretarial stuff, manual labour etc. They all speak native Zulu, some Afrikaans, and a few speak some English. One of the secretary’s at the office, a woman whose English name is “Patience”, has already taken to making enormous amounts of tea for me at all hours of the day. I felt very weird at first and even guilty when she made tea for me. I don’t know I just don’t feel like I deserve it. One time I went into to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water when Patience swiftly leapt from her desk and insisted she make me the cup of tea. I told her I was just getting water and she apologised profusely and went back to her desk. That is the general demeanor of the local workers here though, very eager, hard working, and helpful but timid at the same time.

It’s very nice now to actually be able to sink my teeth into the geology and start actually doing my job. I can’t wait to get down in the mine and check it all out. I’ll be entering in an adit at 6-level, about 100 meters below the top of the hill. This horizontal tunnel bores about 1.5 km to the North before ending. There are then shafts all the way down to 14 level, 450 meters below surface. My first job is to basically get a 3D picture of the geology of the area by looking at outcrops on the surface and within the mine, so lots of exploring to do!

On a non-geology related not, several less-nerdy things are exciting me about Klipwal. One, there is a football/soccer pitch at the mine next to a local village. I already bought a soccer ball and can’t wait to play! Secondly, the potential to see some pretty amazing wildlife. Crocodiles, elephants, impalas, snakes, and lots more are crawling all over the area. I am also very keen to learn some basic Zulu and Afrikaans so I can relate to some of the staff a bit more. Only downside so far: there’s nobody her that’s my age! Hopefully I meet some kids playing soccer this weekend. And hopefully there will be some good landscape and wildlife pics to come...

1 comment:

lskoorbj said...

Haha, while you learn how to drive stick in South Africa, I'll be learning back in Scotland - I think you win.