Johann Gauf
Full name: Johann Ludwig Gauf
Lifespan: (? Germany - post-1934)
Occupation: Prospector
Also see his business partner: WBM Vogts
(There are some overlaps between the biographies of Gauf and Vogts, as they were business partners).
Johann Ludwig Gauf (often referred to as Johan or J.L. Gauf) was a German-born prospector and businessman active in the Transvaal (now Gauteng province, South Africa) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He played a significant role in the Witwatersrand gold rush era and the development of mining on the East Rand, contributing to discoveries that fueled South Africa's industrial growth.
Gauf was a German immigrant who arrived in South Africa in 1879. He first settled in Lady Grey in the Northern Cape, where he helped defend the nearby town of Herschel against the Tambookie (Tembu) rising during the 1880-1881 conflicts tied to the Basuto Gun War. By 1884, he had transitioned to prospecting on the newly discovered Witwatersrand goldfields, pitching his tent on the site that later became Green's Buildings in Commissioner Street, Johannesburg. He arrived in Johannesburg by ox-wagon in January 1887, encountering figures like Crosby, editor of the Diggers News, who offered him a small stand that Gauf declined, deeming it too cramped - a plot that later sold for £35,000 (valued at £100,000 by 1959).
Gauf's contributions began with his search for gold extensions, but he made accidental yet pivotal finds in coal, which proved essential for powering the gold mining industry. In December 1887, while prospecting the eastern extension of the Main Reef Series on the Blue Sky formation at Boksburg (part of Vogelfontein farm), he discovered the first local coalfield. This led to the establishment of the Boksburg Colliery, with the first mine named Gauf's Mine (likely after him as discoverer or manager), followed by others like Good Hope and Ferndale.
He extended searches eastward, finding higher-quality coal at Brakpan in 1888, which was acquired by the Transvaal Coal Trust Company.
Gauf ignored experts who claimed no payable gold existed beyond Knights (near Germiston). He pegged sites for the central shaft of the East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) - one of the world's longest-operating and deepest gold mines - and the Vogelfontein Mine (1887) near Boksburg. In the late 1880s, he held prospecting licenses on farms like Draaikraal (1888) and was involved in claim renewals on Leeuwpoort with H. de V. Steytler. He pegged 60 claims on Marievale farm (adjoining Sub Nigel) and successfully sued the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) government over title disputes involving Dutch Reformed Church land, winning damages despite annoying President Paul Kruger, whom he knew personally. Gauf was convinced the Nigel Reef was an extension of the Main Reef toward Springs, prospecting Rietfontein II and proving correct.
In 1888, he found coal on the farm Weltevreden near Brakpan. In 1892 the Transvaal Coal and Trust Company was established.
In 1897, Gauf partnered with Willem Bernard Maria Vogts (born 1859 in Cologne, Germany; arrived in South Africa in 1882), another German immigrant regarded as an Afrikaner due to his long residency. Vogts, a dedicated Freemason and secretary of the Netherlands Constitution of the Transvaal, had trekked and traded in the Eastern Province before meeting Gauf as a prospector and claim pegger. They shared a dusty, map-filled office on the top floor of Green's Buildings for nearly 50 years, evoking an ancient European city amid Johannesburg's bustle. That year, Vogts secured a right-of-way across Rietfontein farm for the East Rand Gold, Coal and Estates Company ("Busters"), leading to a prospecting contract in which Gauf took a share. They prospected De Rietfontein (east of what became Springs), purchasing the 2,700-hectare farm from Willem and D. Steyn in 1903 for £6,000 (a stark contrast to its 1883 sale for a saddle and bridle, as recorded in ZAR court reports).
The Second Boer War (1899-1902) delayed progress, but after the Treaty of Vereeniging, they formed the Rand-Rietfontein Estates syndicate. Gauf briefly lived abroad after "making his pile," and Rietfontein II sold for £30,000 cash weeks after peace in 1902. The enormous farm (~10 square miles or ~2,590 hectares) held indications of gold and an estimated 104 million tons of coal (with seams 8-10 feet thick above gold formations). By 1913, Gauf was chairman of Rand Rietfontein Estates, optimistic about the Rand's future (estimating 50 more years of reserves).
In 1913 Gauf, together with Ewan Currey, took out a mining licence on "New Thor" - a kimberlite pipe.
Gauf was known for his litigious nature, treating lawsuits as a "sport." Resembling General Jan Smuts in appearance, he attended big company meetings to "raise Cain," filing interdicts to halt deals and making executives tremble. He appeared in legal cases like Gauf v. Leyds, N.O., and others in Transvaal court reports, and a 1906 dispute (Rand Rietfontein Estates Ltd. v. East Rand Mining Estates Ltd.) over boundaries.
- Shovel and Sieve. Rosenthal, E. c.1959. George Allen and Unwin: London.
- Springs - History of a Gold Town on Facebook.
- South African Mining Journal, Jan 25, 1913.
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