Page 15 - Leshobo Technical Report_October2016

Technical Report for the

LESHOBO LIMESTONE

Taung, North-West Province

2. HISTORY

In South Africa several tufa deposits have been described in the semi-arid Transvaal
Supergroup and along the Ghaap escarpment (Ghaap Plateau) in the Northern Cape
Province (Marker, 1971, 1973, 1985, 1988; Ford and Pedley, 1996). Most of these
deposits occur as sequences of fluvial terraces and waterfalls in gorges draining from
the dominant dolomites of Ghaap Plateau. Few of the Campbellrand Subgroup
deposits have been worked for ornamental travertine.

The basal Campbellrand Subgroup limestone deposits have been described as less
significant as compared to the uppermost ones of the subgroup. The most important
travertine or tufa deposits in South Africa have been reported to be along the 250 km
long Ghaap Plateau escarpment. In the Northern part of this escarpment two high
grade deposits (CaCO3> 95%) in Norlim and Thomeng are said to be mined out.
About 12 Mt were produced from these deposits between 1920 and 1959 and were
the major source of limestone in the country for many years. A travertine deposit with an
estimated resources of 40 Mt is known further south, immediately to the east of Boetsap
(90 km north-north west of Kimberley). However, the most important travertine deposit is
at Ulco, 70 km to the north east of Kimberley, with an estimated resource of 100 Mt. A
number of smaller deposits are also known between Ulco and Douglas along the
Ghaap Plateau escarpment (Martini and Wilson, 1998).

The Taung site is best known for the 1924 discovery of a fossilized child’s skull now
known to represent an early hominid “Taung Child”. Mc Kee (1994) explains that the skull
was discovered at a limestone quarry in Norlim where Buxton Limeworks was mining. The
quarry closed in 1977, with most blasting in the Buxton Limeworks having ceased in the
mid- 1950’s when the focus moved South to nearby Thoming. The Leshobo property has
been exploited in the past, but no record of detailed resource evaluation except some
small dumps and visible stockpiles.

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