Some of you might not know this, but ex Oranjemunder, Malcolm Bertoni has written a book on his days out on this side of the world. The book is aptly entitled Diamonds and Dust and is being hosted on an online publishers site. The book focus's mainly on Malcolms carefree days up at Affenrucken during the the late 60's and early 70's.
I will be posting the link on the main page with the next update, but in the meantime, head on over to this link ---> http://www.openwriting.com/archives/diamonds_and_dust/ and have a good read.
This topic will be posted as a sticky for the next 60 days.
Good Luck Malcolm!
Another Plastic Oranjemunder
as he does sumersaults BoomSmilie_anim
QuoteIllogically, No 4 plant was the closest to town and No 1 plant the furthest.
From his book - anyone know why?
It was the last to be built. Prior to that it was just an HMS plant built to process the concentrates being trucked in from the field screening plants.
Sorry to disagree with you Gordon, but No 4 plant was the first plant built and then No 1 plant in the late 60s. Nos 2 and 3 came later - in the late 70s I think. When I moved to Affenrucken in 68, No 1 plant had only been going for a year or two.
I remember that when I started at No 4 plant in 67, it still had the old narrow guage railway line and the ore was delivered that way - most from the old screening plants. I'm not sure when it was ripped up - probably in the early 70s? I can remember driving past No 4 plant in 71 or 72 and was surprised to see that the line had gone. I didnt even know. Often things change and we dont really notice.
Also when I worked at No 4 plant there was only the one big brick building where the heavy media separation (HMS) plant was amd the recovery - most of the other buildings came later (or seemed to anyway). The HMS was pretty damn archaic then - there were two massive wheels called Medag Wheels - they were about 3 stories high and about 15 feet wide and the media and the gravel was fed in at one end and separated inside. They were a bastard to operate and how we managed it I dont know. The noise was also unbelievable.
Hi Malcolm, dug out my stats on the shut down dates of the 18 field screening plants and the commissioning dates of the four conglomerate crushing plants. What they show is No. 1 Plant being commissioned in the later part of 1968; No. 4 Plant at the end of 1970; No. 2 Plant in mid-year 1975 and No. 3 Plant at the beginning of 1977. Further modifications to No. 4 Plant took place after commissioning of 3 Plant. Could have been introduction of tailings dump retreatment section; 81TT Plant. Not sure. Best regards. Gordon. If you out this way next year , make a turn in Cape Town. Would like to see you again after all those years when we played touch rugby on Camps Bay beach with the Camps bay boys ( Barchards; Ashcroft, O'Conners et al) followed by breakfast at the Lincoln cafe with Alex Kushel ( he unfortunately passed on). Remember you stayed in green cottages at start of Camps Bay Drive at the Geneva Drive intersection.Cheers.Gordon
no 2 plant was constucted 1975
interesting was that during commisioning , that is firs a dry run , and then a wet run , before putting the palnt into production
for the dry run mining supplied a few thousand tons of sand or ground .
one paticular day a year or two later , it was raining and trucks could not deliver material via the haul road .
Selvyn ordered that the remains of the test ground , that was still l next to the primary crusher , to be fed through the plant . Only to have the recovery sup rejoycing . because ther were many , many carats coming from 2 plant .
on enquiry it was discovered that mining did not keep record of where the ground was loaded , and the firtst ground for testing the plants was at the bottom of the tailings dump !
Quote from: hennie on July 25, 2008, 06:23:59 PM
on enquiry it was discovered that mining did not keep record of where the ground was loaded , and the firtst ground for testing the plants was at the bottom of the tailings dump !
... And for this reason, one wonders how much gravel/ area's have been overlooked or even missed... there had to be plenty of stones still out there... one noticed in that GM's (acting ) brief that is posted in here somewhere, it was not mentioned that diamonds are finished, but rather technical difficulties and poor productivity....
In my book I describe some of the samples that were treated at the 66M sampling plant during 1968. Many samples came from the G area and were insanely rich with huge diamonds. Some were just sand overburden brought for testing
As one of the mining foremen at the time (Rico van Rooyen) said: "Some of the sample came from areas that were not marked for mining and was the richest that they had ever mined". Make one wonder. There could still be millions of dollars worth of diamond around in the area.
Malcolm, I would even go into the Billions..... When you read that book, Sea Diamonds, the assumption is made that the wealth in diamonds in the ocean is greater than all the gold mined in the Transvaal.....
There's just something about those diamonds.... and there just had to be diamonds under this house that I am sitting in right now....
cl1 , Sorry Good morning
Start digging Michael.
I don't think Michele will like me digging up her garden, besides Pete might turn up .... and it won't be for a rugby match and a braai...
This might not be relevant to the topic but know my dad "Alfred Wrbka" was a maintenance fitter on No4 Plant. Did any of you perhaps work with him?
Also found diamonds in the overburden sand as shown to me on a number of occasions by senior mine foreman Jackie Carr, mainly in the area of U2 screening plant. Prior to 1968/9 we would discard the storm beaches overlying the diamond-bearing beaches, until it was realised the tail ends of these storm beaches also contained diamonds in large quantities. Wonder how many were discarded before 1968! Must have been a lot in the preceding 40 year period. In earlier days, the screening plant discard dumps faced seaward with all the material being dumped on the beaches for the sea to take away. It was only much later when they realised that conglomerate contained diamonds, that the dumps were swung round to the north to allow for future retreatment. With regard to the jig plants these were only 37% efficient, and so a lot of diamonds were lost in this process.
Interesting. Some of the mining guys thought that the sand overburden was where a lot of the bigger diamonds were. Dont know how true this was but there must have been a grain of truth in it.
I also believe that they did some tests of the old No 4 plant tailings and found plenty of diamonds. Wonder how much got washed into the sea as the dumps all went into the sea. As you say Gordon, just like the old screening plants. Also the old Wedag Wheels couldnt have been very efficient either . . . .
For those with a technical bent and interest in the matallurgical history of No. 4 Plant, Malcolm and I can reiterate that '4'Plant was not known as such until 1969/70 when it started to treat run-of-mine ore in its own right. Prior to that it was regarded as a diamond recovery or HMS plant, built to treat the concentrates produced by the field screening plants. The first field screening plant was constructed in 1948 and a further 17 followed in the next sixteen years. The 'No 4Plant' recovery unit initially used primary and secondary Plietz jigs to treat the screening plant concentrated delivered to it in the earlier days by rail and later on by road. In 1952, these Plietz jigs were replaced by a heavy media cone and the first grease belts were introduced in 1953. Ball mills were brought on stream from 1954. A much larger grease belt and electrostatic precipitators section was added in 1959. In 1964 a new HMS Plant was commissioned containing two huge and costly to run Wedag wheels. Also in that year Juba jigs were added to the field screening plants. They weren't very efficient. In 1970, No4 Plant became a run-of-mine ore treatment plant as well with the commissioning of a newly constructed crushing, screening and milling complex. The boulder bounce section was brought on strea in 1973, and the 81TT tailings treatment plant in 1978/79
One wonders if all the material treated prior to 1970 was then retreated, or are there still diamonds in the area\'s that they geologists think have already been mined.... Only the retired Old timers would know this....
Mike, most of the screening plant concentrates treated at No4 Plant ended up in the 81TT tailings dump. This huge discard dump was retreated from 1978/79 onward when the tailings treatment plant came on stream. I do believe that there are still payable diamond gravels to be found in some of the overburden dumps, especially in Area 'G' where the larger diamonds are to be found.
I know that most of the bigger diamonds were from area G and of course the overburden would have contained diamonds as well.
When I came to Aus I worked at Argyle Diamond Mines in norther Wester Australia for 2 years in 83-84. John Mack was the plant sup at the time and I met Jeff Quinton there. The mine was the alluvial diggings that was mined before the main Kimberlite pipe was. I went back again for 4 months in 1993 while I was studying for my Science degree and ran a 15 tph HMS that was sampling the old alluvial tailings dumps and we found enough diamonds to run a viable and cost effective mine on its own. The largest diamond recovered was around 12+ carats!!!!! So even with newer techology the recovery process can be very dodgy.
Congrats to Malcolm, I received an email from him letting me know that his book has been accepted for publishing..... hope it goes well! congrats
Good one Malcolm. Let us know details of publishers, ISBN number etcetera so that we can go out and purchase a copy. Kindest regards
Gordon
Here is the draft Flyer.... Awesome stuff Malcolm.....
Malcolms book has arrived "home" and will be on sale in SPAR in the next day or so...... All I can say is Wow!, if you are into a bit of tales and local history......
Great work Malcolm!
Hi Malcolm
Thanks for my book, Mike brought it by this evening opened the book started reading and my wife had to pull me out of it. Great stuff got to page 42 can't wait to continue.
Greatings Alfred
Yep! Yep! Good stuff..... any of you old timers out there, you will enjoy this book!!!!! msn emoticon (9)
It's now 17h22, we put the books out on the shelf at 11h00 and 11 have sold so far....at N$130.00 each...
Congrats Malcolm! msn emoticon (9)
Is the book for sale in other shops too, closer to me? Or did Mike claim them all? thumper
Quote from: Alfred Boehme on November 06, 2008, 07:46:04 PM
Hi Malcolm
Thanks for my book, Mike brought it by this evening opened the book started reading and my wife had to pull me out of it. Great stuff got to page 42 can't wait to continue.
Greatings Alfred
Malcolm I picked the book up at 4 this afternoon just put it down got to page 140 excellent book tomorrow morning I think I will finish it maybe before breakfast.
Congrats Malcolm
Alfred
Well! Well! Well! Congratulations to Malcolm and his book, 24 hrs, and the 30 copies you sent are sold out, I could not believe it.....
I have only managed to keep back 3 for the reunion..... the rest were snatched up......
numberone
Mike...Is there any way you can get me one.....if not are they available in Cape Town
Ok...Barbara, you just booked yourself one of the three that I kept back for the reunion... 2 left for reunionists........
Thanks Mike daman
Guys I just finished my book and wow it's amazing it's a must read
Photo of me finishing the book
Thanks Malcolm
I was talking to Aunty Sue Hodgeson, she , like me.. spent a good few friday night hours reading that book... I stopped at 11h32... she finished the book after 01h00... that tells the story.....
You fib Alfred...according to that photo you only half way through.
ha ha I saw that too Diana!
I'm the sharp one in the family.
That was just Alfie on his second round, checking for spelling mistakes!
Here's the link back to the main site and some nice pics from Malcolm of Affenrucken!
Indeed an end of an era....
http://www.oranjemundonline.com/malcolmbertonipics.html
Quote from: Diana Rudd (Boehme) on November 08, 2008, 05:14:06 PM
You fib Alfred...according to that photo you only half way through.
Sis that was just a pose for the photo
Hey Guys
Finally managed to get online for the firsttime in a week or so as I'm so busy at the moment. For those of you that might not know I am in China until Nov 28th so flat out working. Some of us still have to, you know.....
Damn pleased that you are all enjoying the book and elated to hear the favourable feed-back. I just wish I was there for the reunion.
I'll have to stop now before I get a swollen head. :-)
Cheers
Malcolm
Malcolm's daughter is posting out 10 more books and already 6 of those books have names to them.... the rest of the order to follow towards the end of the year........
I am going to advertise the book at the reunion tonight and take names of folk that want me to post it to them later...
Malcolm's book had it's first review in Australia, here it is....
Fellow Oranjemunders... Malcolm is now moving into the big league, his book just got reviewed on Amazon....indeed a nice review.... visit the link at:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2AFX4UTKHNIPW/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2AFX4UTKHNIPW
Quote from: Michael Alexander on November 27, 2008, 07:20:17 AM
Fellow Oranjemunders... Malcolm is now moving into the big league, his book just got reviewed on Amazon....indeed a nice review.... visit the link at:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2AFX4UTKHNIPW/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2AFX4UTKHNIPW
Woo hoo Malcolm daman but we still can't buy it as it's not available even on Amazon ('out of print ... limited availability) image031
Hi Patricia
I'm in the process of negotiating with Amazon to list the book and perhaps to stock it as well. Will let everyone know what happens. Also hoping to get Clarkes Bookshop in CT to stock the book.
It can be ordered directly from Equilibrium books via their website.(http://www.equilibriumbooks.com/diamonds.htm).
Hopefully Mike will receive the next shipment in the next week.
Cheers
Malcolm
For those of you who might still be living in Oranjemund....... Malcolms books have arrived and are now stocked on the shelf at Spar, by the magazines..... Malcolm should be in Omund in April and I am pretty sure he will not mind signing the book!.... Hey! Malcolm...... you might have to buy him a beer first...... woo_hoo
The link http://www.equilibriumbooks.com/diamonds.htm
is not working. Tried on several occasions but to no avail....
Any updates where else the book might be available from?
I have 4 copies.....left in the shop...... If you are interested... R130.00 per book..... and I will post from Alexander Bay.... not sure on the posting yet...... let me know.....
I read the book cover to cover and I am not fond of reading. Very interesting book,the guys were mischievious which definately would not be tolerated today.
Had a look on Amazon but the book is out of stock. Would like to purchase one please Mike. Can you drop me a PM when you have an idea of the final costs as well as let me know how to get payment through to you?
Thanks!
Lets make it R150.00 postage inclusive..... If you are still game, email me your postal address, and I will send you bank details....
Hi Mike and Dunja
Clarkes Bookshop in Cape Town have ordered some books and be will stocking the book from mid-March. They are in Long Street and will post to you.
The link to the website in Aus should work and I have checked this.
Mike - I will be bringing some more books (about 20) over with me and we can get them on the shelves of your trusty shop. Wont keep you going for too long in these rather depressed times but might help....
Malcolm
Thanks Malcolm..... appreciate it....
Hi all
Just to let everyone know that Clarks bookshop in Cape Town is now stocking the book. The selling price is R130. ISBN: 978-1-921456-04-6
Their details are: 211 Long Street CT, phone 021 4235739, Email: books@clarkesbooks.co.za
Note that the publishers link is: http://www.equilibriumbooks.com/non_fiction.htm. Look about half way down the page.
The Springbok Cafe in Springbok will be stocking the book in about 4-5 weeks - they will be sent 25 books.
Their details are: Springbok Lodge & Restaurant 37 Voortrekker Road Springbok 8240 Ph 27 (0)27 7121321. Ask for Oom Joppie.
I'm going to try and get the book stocked in a Luderitz bookshop as well and let the forum know.
Cheers
Malcolm
Just to let you know that I was all excited when my copy finally arrived only to have my husband jump in and grab it before I could start.... hehehe
Have managed a few pages whilst he is doing something else and waiting patiently for him to finish!!!