Kalahari Wealth, the story of manganese Samancor sponsored. Purnell and Sons, Cape Town. SBN 360 002730
Dr Leslie G Boardman, a Geologist, who was one of our scoutmasters in the 1950s, discovered the iron ore at Sishen (sixth largest) and the adjacent Kalahari manganese deposits (largest in the world). He spent many years living in the ‘bush’ in tents and a caravan searching through the 160 kilometre belt of farms with a small Askania magnetometer, even composing contracts with local farmers on a battered old typewriter (Boardman 1977). For all his discoveries he never received any compensation other than his salary. I accompanied the Boardman family on two holidays around South Africa in 1959 and 1960 where he introduced us to geology and the Vredefort Crater as it was known then, 60 kilometres in diameter and 10 kilometres deep.