The Minerals Council South Africa is a South African mining-industry employer organisation. Its members include famous South African mining houses such as Anglo American,

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

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 ...

and Harmony. In its current form, it was founded in 1968 as the Chamber of Mines, a South African wide organization. Prior to that year, it has its early origins as the Transvaal Chamber of Mines in 1887, then evolved over many years reforming as the Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines in 1889, the Chamber of Mines of the South African Republic from 1897, Transvaal Chamber of Mines from 1902 and lastly from 1953 until 1967 as the Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines. On 23 May 2018, the South African Chamber of Mines rebranded themselves as the Minerals Council South Africa.

Early history

On 21 October 1887, the Transvaal Chamber of Mines met for the first time at Central Hotel in

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 Demo ...

. Forty seven people attended the first meeting and its first President was Henry Struben. The organizations main aim was to disseminate information, the reading of technical and scientific papers, publishing monthly gold returns, financial issues and other mining issues but after a few meetings the group petered out. More than a year later in 1889, the Chamber was reconstituted as the Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines. Its new president was Hermann Eckstein and the honorary President was

Paul Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic (or ...

. The early work of the Chamber was a uniform standard of treatment for black mine workers on the members mines, advocated for changes to the Gold Law legislation and for a railway system with the South African Republic government. By 1892, Eckstein took up post in London and

Lionel Phillips Sir Lionel Phillips, 1st Baronet (6 August 1855 – 2 July 1936) was a British people, British-born South African financier, Mining Magnate, mining magnate and politician. Early life Phillips was born in London on 6 August 1855 to Phillip Phi ...

took over as President of the Chamber on 1 January 1893.

Previous presidents

* 1889-92

Hermann Eckstein Hermann Ludwig Eckstein (3 August 1847 – 16 January 1893) was a German-born British people, British mining magnate and banker. Life history Born in Hohenheim near Stuttgart, Germany to a Lutheran minister, he received an excellent educati ...

* 1892-96

* 1896-98 James Hay * 1898-1902 Georges Rouliot * 1902-03 Sir

Percy Fitzpatrick Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, (24 July 1862 – 24 January 1931), known as Percy FitzPatrick, was a South African author, politician, mining financier and pioneer of the fruit industry. He authored the classic children's book, ''Jock of the Bus ...

* 1903-04 Sir

George Farrar Sir George Herbert Farrar, 1st Baronet, (17 June 1859 – 20 May 1915) was a South African mining magnate, politician and soldier – Colonel and assistant Quartermaster General – Central Force, Union Defence Force (South Africa), Union Defen ...

* 1904-05 H.F Strange * 1905-06 F.D.P Chaplin * 1906-07 J.N de Jongh * 1907-08 Louis Julius Reyersbach * 1908-09

* 1909-10 J.W.S Langerman * 1910-11 John Gardiner Hamilton

References

Employers' organisations in South Africa Mining in South Africa Organisations based in Johannesburg {{mining-stub