OF MINING AND SUCH

I was in Zambia writing one of the early guide books that my daughter and I were publishing. My dear friend Diz Bostock was staying with her friends Tony and Ann and she invited me to join them. Their home was on the banks of the Kafue River, a wonderful old colonial style farmhouse with a wide verandah overlooking the river. My bedroom window looked out at the river with the view partially blocked by a very tall tree with a trunk unblemished by the emergence of branches until the very top, where they branched out when it looked as though the tree would reach heaven. Ann called it the Tree to Heaven.

I would sit with my laptop on the verandah writing about my travels and a Samanga monkey would swing from branch to branch on the opposite bank of the river to check t hat I had my nose to the grindstone! Sundays would see us having a leisurely full English breakfast attended by two Great Danes and a Rottweiler who were served exactly what we were eating! One morning Tony asked me if I would like a flight over the Copper belt and I immediately said yes. Only later did he tell me that he had built the little aircraft himself from a kit! However he was a good pilot and the little craft flew happily over the countryside and the town, giving me a birds eye view.

My last blog led me to think of the Copper belt as a natural follow up from that story. I was fortunate in that Orion Mining offered to sponsor a page in my Inside Zambia guide book about the early mining on the Copper Belt. Copper was the first metal used by man in any quantity and mining began over 6000 years ago in other parts of the world. Early Portuguese writing refers to mines in Zambia in the 14^th century. David Livingstone met a caravan with slaves carrying five tons of copper to the coast in 1868.

The first European prospectors found Africans still using old methods of mining and smelting copper. In Shaba an ancient working produced at least 100 000 tons of copper. Smelting was surrounded by secrecy and sorcery, the smelting process believed to be the spirits of the mountain showing their miraculous powers in allowing the rock to pour forth its riches. In 1920 R.R. Sharp and his colleague Raymond Brooks documented the ancient art stage by stage.

In 1962 Ndola Copper Refineries had a stand at the Ndola show where it featured demonstrations of this ancient art. Solidified copper in the shape of a capital ‘I’, a St. Andrews cross or a capital ‘H’ was used as currency throughout South and Central Africa. The early prospectors searched for these ancient mines and most of the modern copper mines originated from them. The copper flower also pointed to the presence of copper; a small blue flower classified as Becium homblei de Wild. Kew gardens found that this plant contains more than 1000 parts of copper per million and the roots up to 4000 parts. In a lot of mine sites the flower correctly indicated the presence of copper.

Tom Davey discovered the lead and zinc deposits at Broken Hill now called Kabwe. This mine had the most interesting minerals in all Zambia with the worldwide reputation of producing beautiful specimens of some 25 different minerals, including lead, zinc, vanadium and copper. When the railway came to Kabwe quarrying began in earnest and the ore was exported to Britain, but the mine was fraught with difficulties and was never a paying proposition. After the Great Depression deeper shafts were sunk and by 1960 Broken Hill had produced 315 000 tons of lead and 625 tons of zinc. The ore eventually ran out and nationalization brought the closure of the mine.

Fired by enthusiasm, Tom Davey asked William Collier and another prospector, J. J. O’Donoghue, to prospect the area around Ndola and Luanshya to look for signs of ancient workings. Collier was walking through the bush on his quest when an old man directed him to the area of the Luanshya stream. Here in a clearing a roan antelope was offering the classic shot. It fell on a patch of grey shale and Bill’s qualified eye spotted green malachite. Adjacent were the ancient workings he had been looking for. The seam he prospected was in a ‘U’ shape and he pegged 50 claims naming one arm of the ‘U’ Roan Antelope and the other Rietbok.

The mining was carried on until they eventually found Bwana Makubwa mine (another story). In 1925 an American engineer Russell J. Parker came to survey the mine and subsequent to his findings William Selkirk arrived in 1926 suggesting a daring program of drilling that revealed the rich vein that gave rise to the Copper Belt of today.

Now I must tell you of Susan, children and my experience buying precious ore. We were trundling over a tortuous pass between South Luangwa and the border into Zimbabwe when we noticed youngsters standing on the side of the road holding rocks from which triangles of amethyst grew. We stopped and haggled, eventually buying a couple that would look good in any display in one’s home. Another youngster was selling what looked like rough rubies in a small plastic container. He would not open the plastic so we took a chance and of course they were fake! The amethysts are still in Susan’s home today, in spite of having gone walkabout when certain guests were staying. However Shaun and Jacques nicked them back on a return visit to these particular guests!

I was in Lusaka when I was shown around a semi-precious gem workshop and bought my one granddaughter Meg a sapphire, a deep red stone that my daughter in law, Maud has today and another purple that Maud is keeping for another granddaughter, Michele. Since then young Neve has appeared so I will have to make a plan for her although at 5 years she firmly believes that the shining ear ring studs in her little ears are diamonds! I think her father will have to rectify that for her 21^st birthday!

Writing about the copper belt brings to mind the Chichele Mofu tree that stands in the middle of the dual carriageway between the mining towns of Kitwe and Ndola. The local people believe it to be a house of spirits where the spirit of an ancient chief resides. The tree has been declared an historical monument. At its base is this poem.

Ye who would pass by and raise your hand against me, harken ere you harm me.

I am the heat of your hearth on cold winter nights, the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.

I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie and the timber that builds your boat.

I am the handle of your hoe and the door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle and the shell of your coffin.

I am the gift of God and the friend of man.

Ye who passes by, listen to my prayer . . .

HARM ME NOT.