Universiteit Stellenbosch
Welkom by Universiteit Stellenbosch
Honours Field School starting in the Kaapvaal craton ...
Outeur: B von der Heyden, M Frei
Gepubliseer: 20/04/2018

Honours Field School report

 

The Stellenbosch University Honours class of 2018 made the great trek (by overnight bus) up from the Cape to the exciting geology of the Kaapvaal craton. A total of twenty students from both the hard rock geology- and environmental geochemistry- streams partook in the tour, which focussed predominantly on various mines located in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo provinces. The tour was led by Dr Bjorn von der Heyden, with invaluable assistance provided by Masters student Stephan Dunn. First stop on the tour was the Vredefort Dome, a must-see for any geological excursion upcountry. A transect through the collar provided students with their first practical exposure to the Wits stratigraphy, including a brief stop at the auriferous Amazon Reef conglomerate. The highlights of the visit to the Vredefort dome however, were undoubtedly the various impact features that were observed (shatter-cones and pseudotachalyte breccias). Stop two was in the Johannesburg commercial district, where Matt Mullins from Tecoma Strategies (and a Stellenbosch University guest lecturer) provided the students with critical insights into the business aspects of geology and into the importance of geology to the minerals industry. The next stop was at Exxaro’s North Block Complex open cast coal mine in the Highveld coal field. For many of the students, this was their first ever exposure to a mining environment and the Exxaro team did an outstanding job of introducing students to coal mining and to the role of the geologist in the mine value chain.