The vineyard-dominated landscape between Cape Town’s northern suburbs and the wine-producing town of Stellenbosch, particularly along the R102 and M12 routes, is both beautiful and tranquil and it is difficult to imagine that this land was ever used for any industry other than agriculture.

Indeed, it is a long-forgotten fact that the area surrounding Kuilsrivier, roughly halfway between Cape Town and Stellenbosch, was once host to a relatively successful tin mining industry. But modern-day visitors to the area can certainly be forgiven for missing that fact as what visual signs of mining and earth scars that still remain from that extractive industry have long been blanketed by lush and thriving vineyards, grass and Cape shrubbery.

Although the land between Cape Town and Stellenbosch had been settled and farmed since the late seventeenth century, it was only in the immediate aftermath of the South African War (Anglo-Boer War) of 1899 to1902 that economically viable deposits of tin were first discovered. According to a contemporary report, substantial deposits of cassiterite (considered the only economically significant tin mineral in the earth’s crust) and wolframite (an iron-manganese-tungstate mineral) were first discovered in 1905 on the farms Langverwacht and Rosendal, on the Ribbokrant Hills, not far from the then little village of Kuilsrivier.

Because tin has always been a much sought-after and used metalliferous commodity, the discovery inevitably sparked a flurry of prospecting activity and soon dozens of prospecting trenches were being dug and shallow exploratory shafts sunk to ascertain the commercial viability of that deposit. (It is of interest to note that particular cassiterite mineralisation is associated with the Cape granite suite, a late-Precambiran granitoid geological system that extends across much of the south-western part of the Western Cape.) Such investigations revealed that the cassiterite mineralisation was present in sufficient quantities to warrant the establishment of, at least, small-scale mining operations.

The first mining operation was established on the farms Langverwacht and Rosendal, the actual site of the discovery. At first, the operation concentrated on processing the alluvial cassiterite and wolframite ore that was present in the gravel beds of the streams that ran across the farms. Those easy pickings were rapidly exhausted and the miners soon had to turn their attention to exploiting the actual tin- and tungsten-bearing reefs in the hills. As the years progressed, the scale of mining operations increased both in extent and complexity and a number of relatively deep shafts, both vertical and incline, were sunk to access the mineralised reefs. On Langverwacht, the depth of the main shaft eventually extended to the point where it became necessary to import a large coal-fired boiler and a steam-powered winding engine from Birmingham to lower men and equipment down the shaft and bring up the ore.

Production proved far too small to warrant the establishment of processing or refining facilities. Consequently, the cassiterite and wolframite ore was conveyed by ox wagon to Cape Town, from where it was shipped to Cornwall, which, since the time of the Romans, had been a major tin mining centre, for processing and refinement.

However, as was the unfortunate case with many of the Cape’s mining endeavours, the initial promise of the area was not realised and the actual value of the tin recovered proved insufficient to keep the mines profitable. The significant fall in demand for metal commodities, particularly tin, following the cessation of hostilities in November 1918, proved to be the final death blow for the Cape’s tin mining industry and the miners were forced to simply abandon their operations. Thus, all that remains today are a number of shafts and trenches now overgrown with grass and, in some cases, blanketed by vineyards, as well as the old boiler and mining engine.

Today, the farms Langverwacht and Rosendal comprise the prestigious wine estate of Zevenwacht. In homage to its rather unique history, Zevenwacht has named a range of its wine offering Tin Mine. There are two wines in this particular wine offering, including the Tin Mine White and the Tin Mine Red, both of which are blends. Interestingly, the grapes that are used to make both blends are grown exclusively on the slopes of the hills that were the site of the tin mining operation a century ago. According to the wine estate’s own marketing statement, because these grapes are grown exclusively on the old mining site, “a specific sense of place finds expression in the complexity and richness of these two Tin Mine blends”.

Kudos should be given to the Zevenwacht Wine Estate for not only does it pay homage to a history that does not necessarily gel well with the activity of farming and wine production but it is also making concerted efforts to restore, preserve and publicise the tin mining heritage of the Ribbokrant Hills.