St. Helena Gold Mine

St. Helena Underground Wine Cellar


Useful Information

Location: Welkom, Lejeweleputswa District. 160 kilometers northeast of Bloemfontein.
Open:
Fee:
Classification: MineGold Mine
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours: D=2 h.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address: Joel Gold Mine, PO Box 128, Virginia, 9430, South Africa, Tel: +27-57-733-7911, Fax: +27-57-733-0040.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1947 Welkom founded following a major gold discovery.

Description

St. Helena Gold Mine is a working gold mine located at Welkom, the states capital. It is possible to visit the mine and its wine cellar at 857 m below surface, which is the worlds deepest wine cellar. Unfortunately thats all information we could find about this mine tour. While it is listed on dozens of pages, there seems to be no official website - actually an anachronism today. Not even the tourist information page of Welkon lists further details. In general this is a bad sign und often means the sight was closed lately.

Welkom was planned completely, before the first brick was laid. The architect was Sir Ernest Oppenheimer who then was Anglo American Chairman. The result is called Garden City, where mining and industrial areas blend harmoniously with the rest of the city.

In the Welkom Library is the Gold Museum, which is a good completion of a mine visit.