Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69

www.elsevier.nl/locate/jgeoexp

A stream sediment geochemical re-investigation of the discovery of

the platiniferous Merensky Reef, Bushveld Complex
R.G. Cawthorn*
Department of Geology, University of Witwatersrand, P.O. Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
Received 9 February 2000; accepted 17 October 2000

Abstract
The platiniferous Merensky Reef was discovered on the farm Maandagshoek in the Bushveld Complex in August 1924. A
historical review of these events is presented, based partly on an unpublished report and a map by Dr Hans Merensky. It has
been supposed that Merensky first traced the platinum to discordant ultramafic pipes. However, a re-examination of the
topography and river systems in the area shows that this was not possible. A stream sediment study from this area has been
undertaken to determine the source of the platinum originally panned at the discovery site. Determination of the Pt:Pd:Au ratio
in these samples indicates a strong similarity with ratios in the Merensky Reef, and is completely different from the ratio found
in the pipes, which are deficient in Pd and Au. These ratios also suggest that weathering and transportation has occurred
predominantly due to physical rather than chemical processes. Two platinum-group element anomalies in the stream sediments
are found upstream from the Merensky Reef outcrops. This results from a change in the fluvial system due to Pliocene to recent
up warping with a reversal in flow direction. 䉷 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Keywords: platinum; Merensky Reef; stream sediments; history; recent uplift

1. Introduction provide some interesting observations and implications.

There have been previous reviews (Lombaard, 1945,
1996a,b; Bartholomew et al., 1989; Worst, 1991; Wede-
pohl, 1995) of the history of the discovery of the
Merensky Reef (Fig. 1). However, the development of
the geological database and exploration strategy used by
Dr Merensky has never been investigated. While such
an undertaking might seem presumptuous, especially 75
years after the event, an examination of three infre-
quently referenced articles (Merensky, 1925, 1926;
Wagner, 1925a), two of which were published within
six months of the discovery, and a recently discovered
unpublished company report by Merensky (1924),
* Tel.: ⫹27-11-716557.
E-mail address: 065rgc@cosmos.wits.ac.za (R.G. Cawthorn).
0375-6742/01/$ - see front matter 䉷 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
PII: S0375-674 2(00)00163-1
A short summary of the discovery of platinum in South
Africa is first presented, and is followed by some spec-
ulations on the events that culminated in the discovery of
the Merensky Reef.
Previous historical accounts suggest that Merensky
traced the Pt in the streams to a mineralised, discordant,
ultramafic pipe. However, the topography, which is re-eval-
uated here, does not permit such a source for the panned Pt.
A number of new stream sediment samples from the area
have been analysed for Pt, Pd and Au in order to establish
the source of the first panned Pt concentrates.
2. History of the discovery of the Merensky Reef
The first record of platinum-group elements (PGE)
 60
R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69
Fig. 1. General geological map of the Bushveld Complex. The three best mineralised ultramafic pipes occur on Driekop, Mooihoek and Onverwacht. Note the close proximity
between the pipes and the Merensky Reef, shown by dashed line denoted Pt. (Pprus is the town of Potgietersrus.)
 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69
in South Africa was by William Bettel who identified
osmium–iridium alloy particles in concentrate from
the Witwatersrand gold mines in 1892, and that first
Bettel in 1906 (as reported by Bartholomew et al.,
1989), and then Hall and Humphrey (1908) recorded
the presence of platinum in the chromitite layers of the
Bushveld Complex (Wagner, 1929). Wagner (1924)
reported the presence of sperrylite in the sulphide-rich
ore bodies at Vlakfontein in the western Bushveld
Complex (Vermaak, 1976). None of these occur-
rences of PGE was considered of any economic
significance, but collectively they demonstrated an
awareness of, and an ability to identify, the plati-
num-group minerals by South African geologists. In
fact, Wagner (1925a, p. 91) stated that in 1923 he was
“assigned the task of systematically examining the
chromite of the Bushveld Complex for platinum. He
was forced reluctantly to conclude… that it would
never pay to work the chromite rock for that metal
[Pt] alone”. Wagner (1925a) also added that “The
professional geologist made only one mistake. He
followed too closely the experience gained in the
Urals, where platinum is always associated with chro-
mite.” As the Upper Group 2 chromitite layer of the
Bushveld Complex is now considered to have an even
greater PGE ore reserve than the Merensky Reef
(Cawthorn, 1999; Vermaak and van der Merwe,
2000), perhaps the ‘professional geologist’ was not
mistaken, but merely more than half a century ahead
of metallurgical capabilities.
The events in 1924 are recorded in detail by
Merensky (Merensky,1924, 1925, 1926) and Wagner
(1925a). A most important diagram, shown in Fig. 2 in
modified form, is taken from the unpublished report of
Merensky (1924) and is the only known geological
map of the discovered area.
Wagner (1925a) reported that the initial major
discovery of platinum in the Bushveld Complex was
made by A.F. Lombaard in June 1924, panning in a
dry river bed on the farm Maandagshoek (Fig. 2).
Wagner (1925a) stated “he [Lombaard] suspected it
to be platinum”, and sent it to Dr Merensky, a consult-
ing mining engineer in Johannesburg. Merensky
promptly joined Lombaard on 12th August in the
field, and “within three days succeeded in determining
platinum in a pyroxenite and associated ultrabasic
rocks on the farms Mooihoek and Maandagshoek”
(Merensky, 1925, p. 474), within a sequence of norites
61
which we now regard as a part of the Upper Critical
Zone.
Merensky (1924) reported that the first panned
platinum came from the Moopetsi River, at the point
indicated on Fig. 2. It is also apparent from Merens-
ky’s map and description that the alluvial platinum
occurrences were extremely erratic. Two facts are
important with regard to the prospection. Platinum
from the Mooihoek pipe (which was to become the
first significant ore body to be discovered) could not
have reached the Moopetsi River as far north as the
site of the first panned platinum within the current
drainage system (Fig. 2). The pipe itself lies immedi-
ately east of a slight rise which acts as the watershed,
and so the water catchment boundary separates the
pipe from the drainage system on Maandagshoek.
Detritus from the pipe is more likely to have travelled
eastward. Hence, the Mooihoek pipe could not have
been discovered by panning in the Moopetsi stream
system shown in Fig. 2. Furthermore, there was no
recorded platinum on Merensky’s map in the stream
which runs westward from close to the Mooihoek pipe
(labelled as samples E1–E4 in Fig. 2) to suggest that
prospecting in this stream could have led to the
discovery of the pipe.
Since PGE from the Mooihoek pipe could not have
reached the area they were panning, it is more likely
that they panned platinum from the next west-flowing
side-stream to the north, referred to by Merensky as
the Dry River (on Fig. 2). In this very same valley are
several ultrabasic pipes (Gain, 1985). These pipes do
not contain economically viable quantities of plati-
num for mineralisation, but perhaps have sufficient
quantities for some to have been discovered in this
stream. Thus, the ultrabasic bodies on the farm Maan-
dagshoek, shown on Merensky’s map (and labelled as
dunite/pyroxenite with Pt by Merensky in Fig. 2), may
have been the first platinum-bearing outcrop to be
identified. A search for outcrops of similar rocks
may have been aided by their striking appearance
(black, coarsely crystalline, ultrabasic rocks), which
aided in the subsequent discovery of the platiniferous
Mooihoek pipe to the south (Fig. 2), and the Driekop
pipe to the north (Fig. 2).
The first three occurrences documented (from north
to south-Driekop, Maandagshoek, Mooihoek), all
occur on hills and define a roughly linear trend, almost
parallel to the regional north–northwest strike of the
62 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69

Fig. 2. Map of the farm Maandagshoek, adapted from the unpublished report of Merensky (1924), including the geological data of Gain (1985)
and the author’s geomorphological observations. (The original, previously unpublished map by Merensky is shown on the front cover of the S.
Afr. J. Geol., 102(3), 1999.) The locality of the first platinum panned by Lombaard, the subsequently panned localitites, and the discovery site
of the Merensky Reef are shown. The Mooihoek and Driekop platiniferous pipes are shown as the shaded oval hills immediately east and north
of the Maandagshoek boundaries. Sample localities taken in this study are shown as open circles if PGE were detected, and as solid circles if
below detection limit.

layered rocks of the Critical Zone (Fig. 1). The occur-
rence on Onverwacht, which was to become the rich-
est source of platinum (Fig. 1), was only discovered
by F.W. Blaine on 10th October (Wagner, 1925a; p.
91). However, as of early September 1924 nobody had
realised that the Mooihoek (and Onverwacht and
Driekop) occurrences were actually pipes — discor-
dant bodies cutting across the layering in the Critical
Zone. Merensky (article dated 10th January, 1925)
referred to the mineralisation as occurring along the
‘Kopje Line’ (Kopje being Afrikaans for small, domi-
cal hill). It is explicit in that article, and the report by
 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69 63

Fig. 3. Copy of the cross-section produced by Wagner and Mellor (1925) of the Mooihoek pipe, as understood in early 1925. By the time their
paper was published, they added in a footnote that this geometry was incorrect, and that the platinum-bearing rock (dunite or serpentinite) did
not define a concordant layer. The solid lines refer to the cross-section drawn by Wagner and Mellor (1925) the dashed lines indicate the
subsequent interpretation of the geology based on mining (Wagner, 1929).

Wagner (1925a) that both authors considered these
occurrences to be a part of a concordant sheet or
layer, albeit slightly irregular and lensoid, with very
variable grades. A subsequent article by Wagner and
Mellor (1925) included a footnote, added at some date
after 2nd February 1925, which questioned whether
these bodies defined a concordant layer, and noted
that in their diagram (shown here as Fig. 3) “the
presumed shape [of the dunite/serpentinite] is not
correct”. The first reference to a pipe-like geometry
is given by Wagner (1925b, article dated 16th Novem-
ber), in which he indicated that information from
mining and lack of lateral stratigraphic correlation
of these occurrences indicated that they are discordant
bodies.
It is perhaps also important to note that “The dunite
of the platinum occurrences was first recognised as
such by Dr E.T. Mellor… early in December 1924”
(Wagner, 1925a, p. 96), and that it was only Wagner’s
detailed study after that date that identified the iron-
rich nature of the olivine. In August 1924 Merensky
still referred to these rocks as pyroxenite and asso-
ciated ultrabasic rocks (Merensky, 1925). He also
emphasized that the platinum occurred in ‘strongly
differentiated’ sequences (referring to the fact that
the outcrops on Mooihoek and Maandagshoek
occurred within a sequence of pyroxenites, norites
and anorthosites). The dark colour, the coarse grain
size and possibly the presence of large, poikilitic clin-
opyroxene grains in the platinum-bearing rocks would
also have been noted. Hence, Merensky would have
based his subsequent exploration strategy on the
assumption that the already discovered platinum on
the hills occurred in a concordant layer, which was
ultrabasic to pyroxenitic, within a strongly differen-
tiated noritic sequence, was coarse grained, and had
clinopyroxene. It was possible that by using this
model, the first outcrop of the Merensky Reef was
located only 1 km from where the first platinum grains
had been panned (Fig. 2). However, this model
(correct, as it turned out to be) was based on an incor-
rect understanding of the geology of the first platinum
discoveries on Mooihoek.
There is another intriguing aspect of this story. It
relates to the source of the platinum found by
Lombaard in June 1924. Merensky (1925) stated
that both ‘gold and platinum’ were detected in the
concentrate. Next, when Merensky (1925) described
the discovery of the Merensky Reef, he reported that
‘gold, and above all platinum’ was found in this rock.
In both statements, gold was mentioned before plati-
num. The locality given by Merensky (Fig. 2) for the
panned platinum indicates that the source could have
been north, west, or east. From the geology as we now
know it, the PGE could therefore have been derived
from pipes, Merensky Reef or even UG2 chromitite,
all of which are not more than 2 km away from the
panned area.
It is now known (McDonald et al., 1995) that none
of the pipes contained any gold. If Merensky had
realised that fact during the initial exploration of the
pipes, he would have concluded that there must be
another source for this gold. Such an hypothesis
may have spurred him to continue his prospection to
find a platinum and gold source, and not to be content
to merely evaluate the pipe occurrences.
64 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69

Fig. 4. Geomorphological map of the area. There are two long, north-trending valleys from the Steelpoort River in the south as far as the Atok
Platinum Mine. Prior to epirogenic uplift, these rivers fed into the Steelpoort River, but now flow northwards, with a watershed which cuts
through the middle of Maandagshoek. The farm boundaries of Maandagshoek, which is shown in more detail on Fig. 2, are highlighted.

3. Geomorphology rugged Leolo Mountains composed of Main Zone

It is important to comment on certain aspects of the
fluvial system and the geomorphology of the area.
Maandagshoek straddles a broad valley about 3 km
wide which trends almost due north (Fig. 4), within
which flows the Moopetsi River. To the west lie the
gabbros which overlie the Critical Zone and the
Merensky Reef. To the east lies another chain of
rugged hills underlain by the Critical Zone, and to
the east again is a second valley. The existence of
two parallel valleys, less than 5 km apart, is thought
to have been the result of glacial activity during the
 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69 65

Table 1
PGE contents for stream sediment samples from the farm Maandagshoek (Localities of samples are shown in Fig. 2)

Sample number Size fraction (mm) Analytical method Pt (ppm) Pd (ppm) Au (ppm)

A1 ⬍ 250 ICP 0.20 ⬍ 0.08 0.022

C7 ⬍ 250 ICP 0.11 ⬍ 0.08 0.010
D2 ⬍ 250 ICP 0.17 ⬍ 0.08 0.010
D4 ⬍ 250 ICP 0.11 ⬍ 0.08 0.011
D5 ⬍ 250 ICP 0.16 ⬍ 0.08 0.016
D6 ⬍ 250 ICP 0.23 ⬍ 0.08 0.013
F5 ⬍ 250 ICP 0.14 ⬍ 0.08 0.015
C3 ⬍ 50 ICP-MS 0.19 0.072 0.074
C3 50–100 ICP-MS 0.11 0.045 0.019
C3 100–250 ICP-MS 0.088 0.048 0.015
E2 ⬍ 50 ICP-MS 0.39 0.22 0.025
E2 50–100 ICP-MS 0.79 0.55 0.032
E2 100–250 ICP-MS 0.10 0.033 0.013
D1 ⬍ 50 ICP-MS 0.42 0.11 0.047
D1 50–100 ICP-MS 0.21 0.12 0.02
D1 100–250 ICP-MS 0.38 0.30 0.031

Permo-Carboniferous period. A glacial origin for
these two specific valleys has not been previously
proposed, but it is well-known that the Bushveld
area underlay mountainous terrain during the pre-
Karoo glaciation (Visser, 1987), and from which
boulders of Bushveld granite have been found in
Karoo tillites far to the south (Du Toit, 1954). Permian
to Jurassic sedimentary rocks (the Karoo Supergroup)
infilled this entire area, but the valleys have been
exhumed to their original glacial morphology. Signif-
icant rivers in these two valleys originally flowed
southwards, depositing considerable alluvium in the
valleys. There has been Pliocene to recent subsidence
of the Bushveld basin from Pretoria to Pietersburg
(Fig. 1) to the west of this area (Du Toit, 1933), and
uplift forming the Great Escarpment to the east of the
area in Fig. 1 (Partridge, 1998). As a result, both river
valleys now contain an imposed watershed running
northeast–southwest across the original valleys
(Fig. 4), with only ephemeral streams flowing away
from the crest. These opposing streams on Maandag-
shoek (both called the Moopetsi River) are now
re-working the poorly consolidated sediment accumu-
lated prior to the uplift. The outcrop of the Merensky
Reef runs almost in the centre of the Moopetsi River
valley (Fig. 4), for over 30 km from close to the Atok
platinum mine, all the way to the Steelpoort River.
The Upper Group 2 chromitite lies approximately
1 km to the east of the Merensky Reef, also in this
valley. Hence, erosion by the original, larger, south-
ward flowing river would have carried considerable
PGE, resulting from the decomposition of the
Merensky and Upper Group 2 chromitite Reefs as
well as the Driekop pipe.
4. Stream sediment geochemistry
Stream sediment samples were collected from
various sites on Maandagshoek for analysis for the
PGE. The localities of all samples are indicated on
Fig. 2. At each site a variety of micro-depositional
environments was sampled, including dense mineral
traps behind large boulders, and visible dense mineral
(chromite and magnetite) concentrates on the outside
of bends, within an area of 100 m 2. From each locality
the sample weighed over 3 kg. Each sample was
weighed and then wet-sieved, and the ⬎250 mm frac-
tion discarded. It was assumed that no grains of PGM
would exceed this size, because no bigger grains of
PGM occur in the Merensky Reef or UG2 chromitite
(Lee, 1996), and because there is no lateritic soil in
this valley in which supergene growth of PGM might
have occurred (Bowles, 1986). The ⬍250 mm fraction
was weighed and represented weights which were
between 20 and 40% of the total weight of each
sample. For each of three samples, three sub-
samples were collected, namely 100–250, 50–100
66 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69

Fig. 5. Plot of Pt:Pd:Au ratios of stream sediment samples (encircled area) and platiniferous ore bodies (solid dots). In the inset the solid dots
refer to samples ⬍250 mm. The three joined symbols (small, medium and large open circles) refer to the different size fractions from three
samples C3, D1, E2 (⬍50, 50–100, and 100–250 mm). The solid dot, labelled UG2 is average grade for the farm Maandagshoek (Gain, 1985),
and is comparable to the average for the entire eastern Bushveld (Vermaak and van der Merwe, 2000). The composition of the Merensky Reef is
from Vermaak and van der Merwe (2000). ‘Pipe’ refers to the average of analyses from the platinifereous pipes (McDonald et al., 1995).

and ⬍50 mm fractions, to determine if there was any
preferential concentration or fractionation of the PGE
in the different size fractions. Analyses were
performed in two batches at the Amplats Research
Centre in Johannesburg, using ICP and ICP-MS. In
the first set of analyses by ICP the PGE contents in a
number of samples were below detection limit, and so
a subsequent set was analysed by ICP-MS. For over
half the samples analysed by ICP, concentrations of Pt
were below detection limits of 0.08 ppm, and are not
considered further. For others, Pd was below detection
limit, but Pt and Au gave detectable concentrations.
For the third group all three elements could be
detected. The data are presented in Table 1 and plotted
in Fig. 5. Since all of these values are for concentrates,
the actual bulk sediment sample would have
concentrations which are only between 20 and
40% of these values. However, the absolute values
are not of importance in this study, but their relative
abundances are. All samples, for which all three
elements were detected, plot within a relatively
small area within the Pt–Pd–Au triangle (Fig. 5).
The new sample from the original alluvial platinum
discovery site (A3 in Fig. 2) in the Moopetsi River
proved to be below detection limit for PGE. The only
sample to contain any PGE in that stream (A1) lay
upstream of the confluence with two other dry stream
beds. Tracing the side-stream, denoted C, in which the
Merensky Reef outcrops yielded two samples with
detectable PGE (C3 and C7), one of which came
from upstream of the Merensky outcrop (C7). A
second side stream intersecting the Merensky Reef
(B) proved totally barren. The west-flowing side-
stream (D) proved the most successful. Where alluvial
PGE had been reported at two localities by Merensky
(between D1 and D2, and D6) relatively high values
 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69
of Pt were recorded. In the next side-stream to the
south (E on Fig. 2) which drained from close to the
Mooihoek pipe, Merensky (1924) had not found any
Pt (and so he could not have identified the Mooihoek
pipe on the basis of panning). However, one sample
from this stream (E2) contained the highest PGE
content of this survey. The locality where Merensky
identified Pt in stream F yielded no values, but sample
F5, downstream did contain PGE. In the eye of the
north-flowing Moopetsi River alluvial platinum had
been identified by Merensky, but none was found in
the present sample (G1). It is considered significant
that this site and C7 lie upstream of the possible Pt
sources (Merensky and UG2 Reefs and pipes).
5. Interpretation
The Merensky Reef, the UG2 chromitite and
several pipes outcrop in or near to the Moopetsi
River valley, and so the originally panned platinum
could have come from any of these sources. However,
a consideration of the Pt:Pd:Au ratios allows a distinc-
tion to be made between these different sources.
Based on the reports from Merensky (1925), and the
interpretation given above, it was inferred that he had
concluded that the presence of Au in the originally
panned sample was a crucial fingerprint of the main
PGE mineralisation. He had not found any Au in any
of the samples taken from the Driekop and Mooihoek
pipes, and so realised that there had to be a different
source for the Au. This hypothesis can be tested more
rigorously with the stream sediment analyses, plotted
on Fig. 5. Data for Pt, Pd and Au for the pipes have
been presented by McDonald et al. (1995). Their data
base is relatively small, but all analyses indicate mini-
mal Pd and Au. Of particular importance is the rela-
tive absence of Au. This conclusion is born out by all
the petrographic studies on samples from all of the
pipes, because no reference has ever been made to
any Au being present in any of these descriptions
(Tarkian and Stumpfl, 1975; Stumpfl and Rucklidge,
1982; Rudashevsky et al., 1992; Lee, 1996).
Analyses of Pt, Pd and Au for the Merensky Reef
and UG2 chromitite have recently been compiled for
the entire Bushveld Complex by Vermaak and van der
Merwe (2000). They reported average values of Pt, Pd
and Au of 58, 30 and 7% for Merensky Reef and 39,
67
47 and 1% for UG2 for the eastern Bushveld
Complex. These figures are given as a percentage of
total PGE plus Au. Gain (1985) presented the
averages of a large number of analyses of UG2 chor-
mitite from an exploration programme on the farm
Maandagshoek, and are very similar. The average
Pt:Pd:Au ratios for these two ore bodies are shown
in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the stream sediment
samples (for which Pt, Pd and Au were reported) all
lie close to the average Merensky Reef proportions,
and are different from UG2 and especially pipe abun-
dances.
Sample C7 (from this study) and locality G
(sampled by Merensky) are of interest. Both lie
upstream from the Merensky Reef given the present
drainage pattern, and so there is no way that the
present river systems could explain the presence of
PGE at either of those two localities. However, if
the sediment had been transported from the north in
the pre-upwarp river a source from the north
(Merensky or UG2) would be possible.
The stream sediment analyses can be examined in
slightly more detail, based on the sub-samples taken.
The compositions of all size fractions still plot within
a relatively small region of the Pt:Pd:Au plot in Fig. 5.
A comparison of compositions for each sample shows
that there is no systematic pattern regarding relative
enrichments within the different size fractions. In two
cases the three analyses define a linear trend, varying
in Pt:Pd ratio, but with minimal change in Au content.
In one the coarse fraction has the higher Pt content
and in the second case the reverse is true. In a third
case, the fine fraction is enriched in Au with minimal
difference between the two coarser fractions. It is a
limited data base, but there does not appear to be any
fractionation between the PGE taking place as a func-
tion of grain size of the PGM, nor is there much redis-
tribution of the relative proportions of the three
elements during erosion and reworking. Furthermore,
all stream sediment analyses fall close to the average
for the Merensky Reef.
In order to suggest that the PGEs in the stream
sediment were derived from the pipe ore it would
have to be argued that during reworking all samples
became markedly depleted in Pt relative to Pd
compared to the pipe, but all by exactly the same
proportion, such that they now have the same ratio
of Pt:Pd as the Merensky Reef, regardless of grain
68 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69
size. However, the absence of Au in all of the pipes
and its presence in the stream sediment, remains a
problem for this interpretation.
If it were suggested that the PGEs in the stream
sediment came from the UG2 ore it would require
relative enrichment in Pt compared to Pd in the weath-
ering process, fortuitously yielding the same Pt:Pd
ratio as Merensky ore. Again the absence of Au in
the UG2 source compared to the sediment remains a
problem. The PGM in the UG2 ore are extremely fine-
grained, even compared to the Merensky ore, with
none exceeding 50 mm (Kinloch, 1982; Peyerl,
1982; Kinloch and Peyerl, 1990). Hence, the fact
that the coarser fractions (100–250 mm) contain
comparable amounts of PGE as the ⬍50 mm fraction
would have required supergene enlargement of grains,
with all size fractions becoming equally enriched in Pt.
It was mentioned above that the original Moopetsi
River followed the outcrops of the Merensky Reef and
the UG2 (approximately 1 km to the east) for many
km to the north of the discovery site (Fig. 4). In
contrast, there is only one (on Driekop), or possible
two (if that on Maandagshoek is included), Pt-bearing
pipes with diameters of only 100 m, upstream from
the discovery site. It therefore seems unlikely that the
concentrate panned by Lombaard could have been
derived from the volumetrically minuscule pipes,
rather than one of the continuous layers. In view of
the clustering of all stream sediment analyses close to
average Merensky Reef it seems far more probable
that the alluvial material was actually derived from
the Merensky Reef than from the UG2 or the pipes.
6. Conclusions
The details of the history of Merensky’s discovery
of the major platinum layer in the Bushveld Complex
as previously published may be significantly in error.
Conventionally, it has been reported that the tracing of
small nuggets of Pt in streams led to the discovery of a
discordant ultrabasic pipe on the farm Mooihoek, rich
in platinum. A re-examination of the topography of
the area shows that the mineralised pipe lies outside
the present-day drainage basin of the stream where the
original alluvial platinum was panned.
The second misinterpretation is that the Mooihoek
and other similar bodies were initially considered to
be a layer within the stratigraphic sequence of the
Bushveld Complex rather than discordant pipes. It
took a year of exploitation of these bodies before
the true shape began to emerge.
However, another feature may have convinced
Merensky that the ore bodies on Mooihoek and Drie-
kop were not the source of the panned platinum. He
noted that Au was present in the panned concentrate,
but was absent in the pipe ores. He may have reasoned
that there had to be another Pt and Au-bearing ore
body in the area, which was why he continued search-
ing, leading him to the true Merensky Reef. This
hypothesis has been substantiated by analysis of
stream sediments reported here. Their concentrations
give Pt:Pd:Au ratios identical to those in the
Merensky Reef, but significantly different from
those in the UG2 chromitite and pipe ores.
The interpretation of stream sediment assaying or
panning has been complicated by Pliocene to recent
changes in the geomorphology of the area. Recent
neotectonic up warping has resulted in the formation
of a watershed in the original river on Maandagshoek
and the splitting of this river into streams flowing in
opposing directions. The Merensky Reef outcrops
along the entire length of the original river as it flowed
south and so accumulated significant alluvial PGE in
its bed that is now being reworked by the current
minor streams. The presence of alluvial platinum to
the west and upstream from the outcrop of the
Merensky Reef is also consistent with this hypothesis.
The most plausible conclusion may be that the
original panned PGE actually came from the
Merensky Reef, not from the pipes. However,
Merensky and Lombaard traced the very sporadic
tail of PGE in their pans to what they thought was a
layer, but which is now known to be a series of pipes.
Merensky may have realised that these bodies
contained no Au, and so resumed his exploration for
an gold-bearing platinum reef, which he rapidly
found. If this interpretation has any credibility, then
the acumen of Merensky deserves even greater credit
than he has hitherto received.
Acknowledgements
I thank the Merensky Trust for access to and permis-
sion to publish information and diagrams from their
 R.G. Cawthorn / Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72 (2001) 59–69
archives, and also Amplats for performing the analyses
and permission to publish. Numerous people, including
Carl Anhaeusser, Gordon Chunnett, Chris Hatton, Ron
Hieber, Euan Kinloch, Johan Kruger, Chris Lee, Gerry
Levin, Wolfgang Maier, Terence McCarthy, John
McIver, Laurence Robb, R. Salminen, Robert Schouw-
stra, Marian Tredoux, Morris Viljoen, and Gerhard von
Gruenewaldt offered a variety of stimulating comments
and valuable observations as this reassessment was
being compiled, but ultimate responsibility for these
suggestions lies with the author.
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