The Highveld

The Highveld is an area of South African which includes Johannesburg. Johannesburg, the largest city in the Highveld, exists as it does today because in the second half of the 19th century gold was discovered  near the surface there.

The area of the Highveld is the size of Belgium, starting east of the Johannesburg center and stretching to the Swaziland border, encompassing rural and urban areas of around 4 million people.

The spoil-tips are still very visible in the landscape there and are being re-worked because technology can now extract even more of the precious metal.