Kloofendal Nature Reserve historic stamp mills undergo maintenance
The shorter mill is believed to be the one bought by the Struben brothers, Fred and Harry, to crush the ore from their Confidence Reef mine.
The historic stamp mills at Kloofendal Nature Reserve are undergoing oiling and preservation work.
The shorter mill is believed to be the one bought by the Struben brothers, Fred and Harry, to crush the ore from their Confidence Reef mine.
The mill was built by Sandycroft Foundry in the UK in 1884, and shipped to Durban on a steam/ sailing ship. It was then transported in boxes to Estcourt by train.
Harry Struben met the train there and moved the components in five ox-wagons to the present-day Constantia Kloof on the (then) farm Wilgespruit, now Strubens Valley and Little Falls.
His nephew, Godfray Lys, and a tramp/ handyman named George Walker helped to assemble the mill within three weeks.
The mill crushed the first gold ore from the Struben mine and in 1886, after the discovery of the Main Reef, it also crushed ore from Main Reef claims until other machinery could arrive.
In 1888 it was sold to Bandjies Mine, where it crushed the ore that formed the small mine dump next to Florida Lake.
Later it was recovered by the Roodepoort Museum and put on display with another mill on the corner of Goldman Street and 7th Avenue in Florida.
In 2009 Friends of Kloofendal moved it into the Reserve near the old mine workings. Tours of the mill and mine are conducted every first Sunday of the month at 2pm.
