MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Strength of high-flying ARM is its multiracial, multicultural character – Motsepe

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. Strength of high-flying ARM is its multiracial, multicultural character – Motsepe: The strength of South Africa, its businesses as well as African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) itself is its multiracial and multicultural character, which the country is privileged to have, ARM executive … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. Rand Water team joins search for Orange Farm boy (6) who fell into open manhole: JOHANNESBURG – A desperate search is under way for a six-year-old Gauteng boy who fell into an open municipal manhole in Orange Farm. The child’s family said that he was playing with friends on … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. Jasprit Bumrah becomes quickest Indian fast bowler to 100 Test wickets: Bumrah became the quickest Indian seamer to 100 Test scalps in just his 24th Test, surpassing Kapil Dev (25 Tests) to the mark at the Oval. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. Fatawu Mohammed starts as CK Akonnor makes 7 changes in Black Stars XI vs South Africa: Black Stars head coach CK Akonnor has made changes to his starting XI that faced Ethiopia last Friday. The gaffer has ringed 7 changes ahead of the South Africa clash later today in Johannesburg. The … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. Vaalbos Trust: all hands on deck at high-diversity farm: Vaalbos Trust in the Loskop Valley is a highly diversified farm, as is the norm in this region that straddles Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Right: potatoes planted for the processing sectorBy … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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Have you tried: Reach Trust for Solar and Building Management?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? 40% of the World’s Gold is found in the greater Johannesburg region: The fact that Johannesburg is also referred to as ‘Egoli’ (meaning the ‘Place of Gold’) makes sense, right?

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Top Star Drive-In: Destroyed by What Created it

However, the very thing that created the Top Star eventually destroyed it. Because the early miners had used crude methods, the Ferreira Dump—and dozens of others like it—still contained significant traces of gold. As the price of gold rose and new chemical extraction technologies (like the carbon-in-pulp process) made it profitable to “mine the waste,” the ground beneath the Top Star became more valuable than the cinema itself. In 2006, despite fierce opposition from heritage groups who argued that the dump and the drive-in were culturally significant landmarks, the projectors were turned off for the last time.

The reclamation of the dump was a staggering industrial feat. Starting in 2008, mining giant DRDGold used high-pressure water cannons to “monitor” the dump, turning 5 million tons of solid earth back into a liquid slurry. This slurry was then piped 40 kilometers across the province to a processing plant in Brakpan. By 2011, the “mountain” had completely vanished. The 50-meter-high plateau that had dominated the southern skyline for a century was reduced to a flat, dusty crater.

The disappearance of the Top Star is a poignant symbol of Johannesburg’s “extractive” nature. It is a city that consumes itself to stay alive; even its historical landmarks are subject to the fluctuating price of minerals on the London and New York stock exchanges. Today, if you drive along the M2, there is an empty space in the sky where the Top Star used to be. While the reclamation removed a source of toxic dust and “acid mine drainage,” it also erased a piece of the city’s collective memory. The land where the gold-flecked mountain once stood is now being rehabilitated for light industrial use, proving that in eGoli, even the horizon is for sale if there’s enough gold hidden inside it.