Between the log cabin and the riding club is an old tar road....all covered and scraped up...no longer in use....there is a dirt 4x4 track that runs alongside it.... the questions I have.....
1) what road was this?
2) when was it built?
3) and is there any truth in the rumour I heard, that the road was built with diamond bearing gravel, in a time when the town was still closed?
idontknow
iknow
there used to be a tar plant out there. produced tar for the town roads.
i think excess tar was dumped on the ground there, to form a road to and from the tar plant. or they just built their own road to make things easier.
:sorriso2:
...aha..the plot thickens.... but did they use conglomerete at the tar plant or at least on that road...?
pls
You shouldn't have talked about it Michael. Take your spade and go there at night... Carefull! Fullmoon is coming:
meanpuff :emot19:
iknow
the road has been there from the early 60s
tailings from the mine plants was used to make the tar, so yes there will be crushed conglomerete in the road.
this includes all town roads and the road to 1 plant.
My father Bob Stenson used to work for the roads department as a mechanic in those days.
C.D.M also tarred Alexander airport.
according to Barney , the recovery forman of years ago , if something was for sale , he would buy the tar road in front of the GM's house as well , because it was made from the tailings of the Electrostatic seperators . Those seprating machines were very in efficient
Would that be Barney Briel?
I worked with him at 4 plant and 66m
I believe that there is or was a building near the old single quarters in town that has/had about $2 m worth of high quality diamonds in its foundations. This was around 1972.
How it got there is another story....
Malcolm
Yes . it was Barney Briel who told me this .He retired and moved to Parys . OFS. where he lived about two street blocks away from where Robert Du Preez stayed . Robert used to work in the engine rebuild shop at Uubvlei
... and the streets were paved with gold...... heheheh this is interesting... I need to get a list of possible suspect buildings, for when they sell them....
Why do you suppose so many guys became plumbers ? :emot26: bling1
Stennie, here;s a snap of your folks..... strange place for me to post it, but I did a search for Bob Stenson...and this topic came up.....
Drove the road of diamonds this morning....
When you entered the Diamond Town they had to let you in on a road of Diamonds surely this must of been the old road from Swartkops Garages into Town in the old days before my Time
There was a tar plant there for making the roads in town, the road was made by them from excess tar...
I wonder if this rubble next to the road are the remains of the plant?
Could be, looks like the spot...
There use to be a lot of liquid tar lying on the ground, we use to play there when we kids.... what a mess we were afterwards sorriso2
Tar is probably long covered in sand.
Yep! That would be the place then, wonder if Ronel will have the place tidied up then?
RONEL???????????????????????????????????
are-you-there
Finding the odd sparkler in town gravel has a long history. A search of the archives for "Penny finds pretty stone" will bring up a piece written back in the early Sixties
@Bob, hence the reason that I ask about proclaiming the town. there is documented proof on two occasions where stones have been picked up in town....
Penny and the cricket field......
so when do we submit our claim forms to mine........ image04
I believe the tar plant was moved to the mining area when the road to 1 plant was tarred
Is this photo on the mine or down by the log cabin?
The Tar Plant came from Germany and the only manual for it was also in German.
It was first used at Grootfontien to bulid a runway there.
My Dad and Gunther Maghts flew there to have a look at it.
It was later brought to Alexander Bay to build the runway there. Some time around 1964.
After that it was brought to Oranjemund for the roads here.
Then it went to the mine and my Dad said he last saw it in 1987 rusting in the desert somewhere north of Uubvley.
Dad says he remembers it well because he had to live for 6 months in Alexander Bay while they were building the runway.
There were still a few rusted drums and evidence (in 2009) of the tar plant having been there near the log cabin end of the diamond road. Most of that road was ripped up and used as base material for the new Oranjemund runway a few years ago.
The old German made tar plant retired opposite 142U sampling plant. Here are a few pics I took of the remians back in 2008. I'm curious as to whether or not SA metal have klapped it yet. All the historical evidence is being eaten up by the scrap mongers. I just hope that they don't eat up what's left of the old South Works and the siemens shovels.
just to add a little story ; During the Diamond sales slump, plants and vehicles were mothballed. The CAT 769 fleet were taken to Arriesdrift . But 3 or 4 of them , that were parked earlier at the tar plant was left behind. when things normalised , and the trucks braught back on the mine , the tally did not count up . untill the heli pilot heard about the scramble about the missing / stolen trucks. He was able to come to the rescue - and tell the mining dept where to look for the missing 769 's