Driefontein is the Driefontein Mine in the West Witwatersrand Basin (West Wits) mining field. The West Wits field was discovered in 1931 and commenced operations with Venterspost Gold Mine in 1939. In 1952, the West Driefontein mine is opened. In 1968, Kloof mine commences operations. In 1972, East Driefontein opens. In 1981, consolidation starts. In 1999,

Gold Fields Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York ...

took control of the combined East and West Driefontein mines and merged them starting 2000 with Venterspost, Libanon, Leuudoorn and Kloof mines . In 2010, the current Kloof-Driefontein Complex, comprising KDC East and KDC West, is formed. The place is situated in Merafong City local municipality, West Rand district,

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

province,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. Similar census locations are East Driefontein (also/officially East Driefontein Mine) and West Driefontein, also Eastdriefontein and Westdriefontein. Similar names in Afrikaans: Oos Driefontein and Wes Driefontein, Oosdriefontein and Wesdriefontein. The seat of the district is

Randfontein Randfontein is a gold mining town in the West Rand, Gauteng, South Africa, west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and, in 1889, floated the Randfontein Est ...

. Part of the

West Rand The West Rand is the name of the urban western part of the Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation. This area became settled by Europeans after a gold-bearing reef discovered in 1886 and sparked the gold r ...

1886 Witwatersrand Gold Rush region, although to the west-southwest of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

itself, it is part of the Johannesburg conurbation. It does not seem the place after which the Battle of Driefontein (

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, 10 March 1900) was named. That place is described as 6 miles (10 km) south of Abraham's Kraal (or Abrams Kraal or Abramskraal).

References

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_driefontein.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070210184930/http://www.pinetreeweb.com/conan-doyle-chapter-20.htm http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=CL19000316.2.14.1 http://www.boer-war.com/Military/British/NorfolkRegiment.html http://travelingluck.com/Africa/South+Africa/Gauteng/_967717_Oos-Driefontein.html http://www.goldfields.co.za/pdfs/technical_short_forms_2011/kdc_mine.pdf Populated places in the Merafong City Local Municipality Mining communities in South Africa {{Gauteng-geo-stub