Friday, September 10, 2010

Day 1 9/6/2010

Day 1

I am completely and utterly exhausted. More mentally than physically, but it’s a great feeling, something I haven’t felt in a while. It might be due to the fact that today was one of those days that you just cannot prepare for, no matter what you think you know going into the situation or how much you’ve been thinking about it. And believe me, I have been thinking about this day all summer. So what happened?

I woke up in Lloyd’s (my boss) mansion in Pretoria at 6 am, set to leave at 7 for a visit to a gold mine at Pilgrim’s Rest. This was not the original plan for me. Lloyd’s right-hand man Nick was set to drive me to Klipwal today, the mine I’ll be working at for the next 3 months. This changed when Lloyd decided to purchase yet another gold mining enterprise, centred in a small mining town called Pilgrim’s Rest. He thought with the 3 hour drive it would be a good opportunity to brief me on my responsibilities at Klipwal, and also give me a chance to experience mine dealings first hand with some experts in the field.

On the drive over, I managed to get my point across to Lloyd that regardless of what I choose in the long run, that I will be here in South Africa for just the 3 months initially. I am coming home in December to see the family, talk to them about my experiences, and discuss whether this is something I want to do as a career. He was perfectly fine with that, which was good to hear after all his musings that implied I would be here for 2, 5 or 10 years working my way up the latter. Maybe that will happen, but I’m very sceptical at the moment.

That doesn’t mean I’m being close-minded about the enormous wealth of knowledge I have the potential to gain in this situation. When we arrived at the mine today in Lloyd’s big diesel Land Cruiser (complete with all the off-road bells and whistles), we had come from the hot, hazy plains of northern South Africa into a valley covered in a dense, misty fog. We drove into the mine’s parking lot, signed a guest log, and joined a meeting already in progress. Lloyd had enlisted old friends from previous ventures (a mine engineer, a metallurgist, a senior geologist, and a lawyer) to help him basically grill the current owner of this dormant gold mine about every bit of resource and infrastructure he had to offer. They sat and talked for a good 2 hours before walking around the site and inspecting all the ore processing equipment. As much as I was trying to be sponge-like and absorb everything they were saying, it was very overwhelming listening to 5 people with a combined 120 years mining experience mulling over nuances of this deal.

The company Lloyd was looking to purchase has mines all over this region (about 15 miles in all directions from Pilgrim’s Rest, look it up on google maps), so after lunch we drove with Lloyd’s mining dream team down to a town called Sabie and found an old gold mine addit. The lawyer, engineer, and metallurgist were concernedly discussing logistics with access road width and whatnot, when Lloyd and the geologist went straight to the opening of the addit, tore open the fence that read “Dangerous, do not enter”, and invited me in. 250 meters later I was walking along a muddy path in pitch black with a headlamp to guide me along with Lloyd and the geologist Dale. We were looking for the main mineralised quartz vein or reef that was within the granite country rock, closely examining outcrops along the ceiling and walls of the mine, when all of the sudden...bats. Not just a few, but just like we were in a movie, and endless stream of bats poured out of a crack in the ceiling. Lloyd, because he’s slightly insane, was laughing while the geologist and I were trading obscenities. I expected bats, and in the end it was fine, but man was that surprising when about a hundred of them just rushed out at us all at once.

After snooping around that small mine, we said bye to his four colleagues and drove back to Pilgrim’s Rest, where I am writing this account from before we drive to Klipwal tomorrow (where I’ll be working). First we stopped at the local pub for a drink, where we were met by a dark bar room filled with locals and a few flickering candles. Turns out the power was out in Pilgrim’s Rest, so the locals had gathered in the pub (it’s a very small town), and Lloyd and I joined them. The general chat was you’re normal everyday small mining town talk: why there aren’t any tourists coming through town, gay jokes, racist jokes, and of course, ghost stories. So an hour and 2 pints later, Lloyd and I left the pub to complete and utter darkness (power was still out), and drove up a hill to where I am staying the night at this moment. Luckily the power has come back on and we enjoyed a nice meal in their restaurant.

Tomorrow I will arrive at the place I’ll be living at for the next 3 months: Klipwal. The mine sits atop a mountain 750 meters above sea level and skirts the Pongola River to the south, home to massive African crocodiles. Lloyd has told me on three separate occasions today about these crocodiles and that I am never to go closer than 3 meters from the river. Safe to say I think I’ll stay much further away than that. He also told me today that in gold mining you must “find the gold, extract the gold, and sell the gold. You’re job,” he said, “is to find the gold.” So here’s to finding gold...

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