My experience at the Gold reef mine .
Gold Reef City is an amusement park in Johannesburg, South Africa. Located on an old gold mine which closed in 1971, the park is themed around the gold rush that started in 1886.the buildings on the park are designed to mimic the same period. There is a museum dedicated to gold mining on the grounds where it is possible to see a gold-containing ore vein and see how gold is poured into barrels. And multiple shops around the park can be located and a tour into God mines.
The lower levels of the mine are currently flooded — 19th level to the 47th level . Thus, underground gold tours are conducted only up to 5th level. Thus travelling down a Gold Mine Reef Shaft No 14, has been in production for 84 years — 1887 to 1971 and indeed during its time it was the deepest mine in the world.
To travel down the Gold Mine shaft there basic safety ruler, people with high or low blood pressure ,under 5 years , pregnant, drunkards, if you just had a recent operation and were afraid of being in small spaces weren’t not allowed.
When everyone confirmed they understood the rules then we proceeded to wearing safety hats and light , we all entered in a large clangy lift to level 5 ( 720 feet — 226 meters) for a guided gold mine tour. But before we left the top level the guide told us South Africa was experiencing load shedding if the power went off as we went down we would have to wait in the Clancy lift calmly or if it got off when we were down we need to walk 15000 steps back up to the surface 🤣. Everyone was laughing in the group.
As we descended down the mine it got colder and darker and all the walls of the mine had Water running down this was under ground water thus the flooding on the last levels . So they keep pumping the water out to avoid the water from cover the rest of the remaining 5 levels .
We Walked down the tunnels with a hard hat and torch in hand, and experienced the tough conditions that gold miners had to endure. We also Experienced a short burst from a miners drill, this will accordingly give you an understanding as to why miners would go deaf without ear plugs.
As the tour guide walked us thru the mines and gave us details of how gold was mined and how the miners worked in hard conditions of not having electricity but manually dug a one meter whole for 8 hours and then put explosive to blast the rock so they could find gold.
It was an interesting tour and I recommend it if your ever in Johannesburg for work or holiday. And no I didn’t get any God , my shock was it was a black stone which they purified and got gold from it.🫡
