Day 8 (Wednesday Sept. 13th )

Bushveld to Pilanesberg

We were all up, showered, and fed by 8 AM when John Price drove up and led us to the entrance of the Mapochs 'Highveld' vanadium Mine, a member of the Anglo American plc group. We hopped in a bus, and they took us on a tour of the facility, zipping around large trucks loaded with Magnetite! Pure Magnetite, but loaded with a zoo of trace elements and a big spike of vanadium (used in many specialty steels, and even the space shuttle tiles). We were really impressed by their environmental remediation efforts, backfilling the open pit structure and resurfacing the area with native vegetation. Upon our return to the main office, we were treated with coffee, tea, and cookies! How wonderfully civilized!

We then had several other stops in the Bushveld, including a visit to a classic exposure (the Dwar River) in the central critical zone where beds of ore-grade chromite are interleaved with a spotted anorthosite, and the entire section is sliced by the canyon of a bubbling stream. Absolutely beautiful, and a must-see exposure for any budding or advanced earth scientist.

And then a mad dash for 300 km over to the Pilanesberg volcanic crater and game park, for our appointment with a night drive. In retrospect, we could have used another day for this leg of the trip, but egad, this is FUN!

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