Rudolf Krahmann (1896 - 1971) was a German geophysicist who was instrumental in discovering one of the richest gold fields of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Krahmann was born in Berlin; his father was a professor of Mining Economy at the University of Berlin. As a young man, Krahmann studied economic geology, before taking a job as a prospector for which he travelled extensively (Austria, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Spain, Java, Australia, New Zealand). In the course of this work, he developed a method of prospecting by means of a

magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...

. In February 1930, Krahmann and his wife Gertrud emigrated to South Africa. A few months later, while sitting on a hill near

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius and Abner Cohen. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a ...

, an area already famed for its gold, he noticed that his compass was being deflected by rocks that were rich in iron. He realized that he could search for gold indirectly, by using a magnetometer to trace the iron-rich shales associated with the deep gold deposits of the

Witwatersrand 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, w ...

. This soon led to the discovery of two immense deep gold deposits, the Carbon Leader Reef and the Ventersdorp Contact Reef, and the establishment of a number of new gold mines. Krahmann was a supporter of the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, and at the start of the second world war, he was interned in South Africa; he was repatriated to Germany in 1944. In 1945 he was arrested by the Soviets, and spent more than three years as their prisoner in eastern Germany. He and his wife returned to South Africa in 1950. In honor of Krahmann’s achievements, the highest award of the South African Geophysical Association is named the Krahmann Memorial Medal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krahmann, Rudolf 1896 births 1971 deaths Gold mining in South Africa German geophysicists