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History: Langlaagte lies about eleven kilometres from the centre of Johannesburg. In a memorial park adjoining the Main Reef Road one may still see the excavations on the claims of the discoverers of the Main Reef Group of Conglomerates of the Witwatersrand.
The dramatic discovery of the rich gold-bearing deposits of the Witwatersrand was of the greatest importance in the history of South Africa. It not only brought about a revolution in the economy of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, and, indeed, of South Africa, but it also had the most far-reaching political consequences. The credit for first discovering gold near the Witwatersrand is due to Pieter Jacob Marais who found alluvial gold in small quantities in the Jukskei River on 7th and 8th October, 1853. In the same year he declared to the Volksraad of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek that the Transvaal had richer gold deposits than ‘Australia and America together’.
From 1860 to 1880 prospecting often took place near the Main Reef, but the prospectors were interested only in quartz outcrops and paid no attention to the conglomerate or ’banket’. From 1874 to 1885 activity increased, with the result that eventually prospecting and even mining was done on nineteen farms to the north of the Main Reef. Several samples of quartzitic and alluvial gold were found and reported to the Government of the Republic.
The first mining company for exploiting gold near the Witwatersrand was formed in 1875. In 1885 gold-bearing quartz was crushed on the farms Tweefontein, Kromdraai and Wilgespruit. On Wilgespruit two brothers, H. W. and F. P. T. Struben, erected a five-stamp battery to crush quartz from the Confidence Reef.
From 1884 the Strubens worked both north and south of the Main Reef and directed so much attention to the Witwatersrand that the discovery of the Main Reef became merely a question of time. Besides this, F. P. T. Struben and J. G. Bantjes established, before 1886, that both the quartz and the conglomerate were gold bearing. The Strubens paved the way for the discovery and, indeed, in 1886 the Executive Council of the Republic declared them to be the main discoverers of the goldfields.
Yet it was not the Strubens who were destined to make the great discovery. The Main Reef Group of Conglomerates was discovered by chance in 1886 by George Harrison and George Walker on the portion of the farm Langlaagte which then belonged to C. G. Oosthuizen. The precise date of the discovery is uncertain, but it is likely that he discovered it shortly before he entered into a prospecting contract with Oosthuizen on 12th April, 1886, according to which Oosthuizen agreed to give a claim to each of them if they found payable gold on his land. In any event, they did discover gold and Oosthuizen gave them claims Nos. 19 and 21. These are the claims that are now preserved as an historical monument. The Surface Rights of the area were kindly donated to the Historical Monuments Commission by the Langlaagte Estate and Gold Mining Company Limited and the Crown Mines Limited. With their concurrence, the Commission subsequently transferred them to the Johannesburg City Council.
Shortly after this discovery, which was reported to the Government on 9th June, 1886, J. G. Bantjes discovered the Main Reef independently on the farm Vogelstruisfontein. This was at the end of June, 1886. After that prospecting took place at various places on the Main
Reef during June and July. On 9th July the Reef was opened to prospecting along a distance of 29 kilometres and active prospecting took place over the whole area from Roodepoort to Driefontein.
Between 20th September and 11th October, 1886, the following farms were proclaimed as public diggings:
Driefontein, Elandsfontein, a portion of Doornfontein, Turifontein, Randjeslaagte, Langlaagte, Paardekraal, Vogelstruisfontein and Roodepoort. The town which was given the name of Johannesburg was laid out on the farm Randjeslaagte and proclaimed on 4th October, 1886.
The first stamp battery on the Main Reef was erected in April, 1887. The capital for the development of the Witwatersrand goldfields came in the first instance from Paarl, Pietermaritzburg and mainly from Kimberley. The most important mining properties were purchased in the second half of 1886 and the first half of 1887.
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