Driefontein is the Driefontein Mine in the West

Witwatersrand Basin The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...

(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 Sto ...

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 Merafong City Local Municipality is a local municipality in West Rand District Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa. Its boundaries encloses some of the richest gold mines in the world. It is situated about 65 km from Johannesburg and is ser ...

, 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 Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. Similar census locations are

East Driefontein East Driefontein is a small gold mining town approximately 20 km outside Carletonville next to West Driefontein West Driefontein was a South African gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, ...

(also/officially East Driefontein Mine) and

West Driefontein West Driefontein was a South African gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion ...

, 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 ...

1886

Witwatersrand Gold Rush The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a gold rush in 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was a part of the Mineral Revolution. Origins In the modern day province of Mpumalanga, gold miners in the alluvial mines of ...

region, although to the west-southwest of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; 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, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

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

Battle of Driefontein The Battle of Driefontein on 10 March 1900 followed on the Battle of Poplar Grove in the Second Boer War between the British Empire and the Boer republics, in what is now South Africa. In the first half of 1900, the British made an offensive to ...

(

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