Gold is more expensive now than it has ever been. Not because it is rarer – it is produced in mines all over the world. The deepest are in South Africa. More men have probably died in the deep mines of the Rand and the Free State than anywhere else: between 1984 and 2005 over… Continue reading

First posted 11/11/25 Today I thought about my father and other men in our family who died in or survived both world wars, fighting against Germany and its allies. I thought also about my maternal great grandfather, who died fighting against the British in the Boer War. Wounded in a surprise attack on his tattered… Continue reading

POSTED ON MARCH 29, 2021 BY JFRIEDRICH Everyone knows that mining is dangerous. This is what it’s like when you’re three thousand feet underground and things go wrong in a really big way. I spent most of 1977 and 1978 underground at Randfontein Estates Gold Mine and Rustenburg Platinum’s Amandelbult mine near Thabazimbi. One day,… Continue reading