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Standard sits on old Jhb mine
01/11/2006 12:59 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Standard Bank (SBK) is sitting on a gold mine.
No, not the proverbial stash of money one would associate with a bank, but an underground excavation that dates back to Johannesburg's early gold rush era.
Back in 1986 during the construction of the bank's head office at 5 Simmonds Street, contractors discovered a stope or access tunnel to old mining works three levels below ground.
The stope once led to the Ferreira's Mine, started by Ignatius Phillip Ferreira over 100 years ago.
In view of its historic importance, the bank has preserved the stope and its surrounding area and created a museum open to the public.
The clearly visible pick marks on the walls have been retained, and specialist lighting installed to recreate the underground ambiance of the 1880s and 1890s.
Enhancing the tale of the origins of Johannesburg are sepia photographs and a display of mining implements found on the site or donated.
Ferreira was an avid speculator who'd tried his luck in both the diamond and gold rushes of Kimberley, the Eastern Transvaal and the Witwatersrand. The southern Johannesburg suburb, Ferreira's Town, owes its name to him as this is where he established a once-bustling miners' camp known as Ferreira's Camp.
In October 1886 he at last found his gold, formed the Ferreira Company syndicate and the Ferreira Gold Mining Company, contracting Cornish miners to develop the underground shafts and tunnels.
He lost his share in the company shortly afterwards and retired to farm near Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt).
Standard Bank faced a problem of subsidence during the planning of its head office in the mid 1980s. In consultation with engineers and contractors, the bank pioneered a technique that involved caulking the top of the stopes to stabilise the ground and filling some of the underground tunnels with concrete and cement grout.
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