Contents
Escape Committee
Transport Museum
Botanical Gardens
Soweto
Soweto Bike Ride
Pilanesberg Game
Reserve
Gold Reef City
Quad Biking
& Engineering Dinner
Escape to…
Gold Reef City
 Gold Reef City |
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 Get your emergency hats here ;-) |
 Equiped to go down the mine |
 The lift cage |
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 255m below ground |
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 It's dynamite. |
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 Safety notices in a variety of languages |
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 Rock from an upper level is dropped into trucks on the next level down |
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 Demo of what a roof fall looks like |
 The jackhammer that drills holes for the explosives |
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 Mock up of working area |
 When explosives have been set, the mine is cleared of workers and the explosives are set off overnight. That level will be ventilated for two days before the loose rock clearance starts. |
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 Demo of hand drilling & jackhammer. The jack hammer was LOUD |
 Electric transport introduced in late 1920's |
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 We were still relatively near the surface, compared the whole mine |
 Mine operated from 1887 to 1977 |
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 Back up... |
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 The mine head |
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 Gold pouring after the base ore has been refined |
 The ore is crushed to a powder, gold is dissolved in a cyanide solution, the solution is separated then zinc is added which causes the gold to precipitate out. |
 Each tonne of ore yielded 4g of gold. |
 The end result here is 88% gold, 10% silver and 2% base metals |
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 Once cooled it will be sent elsewhere for further refining |
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 This little lump weighs 12.5kg and is worth over £250,000 |
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 And we all got to pick it up. |
 You've never seen a meaner bunch of gold digging desparados |
 Not a mine shaft head (at least not now) but the 'Tower of Terror' |
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 It drops you 50m vertically down a mine shaft before turning you back up. You emerge from under buildings about another 50m away. |
 Arrgghhh! The blonde girl gave me a lesson in Akrikaan swearing |
 Lee & Mike, well what can you say? ;-) |
 The ferris wheel |
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 Views from the big wheel |
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 Soccer City & spoil heaps in the distance |
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 We fell off that! |
 The proper lift shaft |
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 Joburg |
 You can see a spoil heap being reworked in the distance. Modern techniques enable a ton of spoil to yield another half a gram of gold. |
 Soccer City |
 The real lift again |
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 The Josi Express. Lee's enjoying it but James? |
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 The 'Anaconda' ride |
 The water ride is best not done at the end of the day - you do get wet. |
 A peahen gets a chip in the pie shop. |