[2] He invited Karl Mauch to accompany him on his next trip, and in 1866 Mauch announced that he had found the Tati goldfields extending about 80 by 3 miles (128.7 by 4.8 km)[3] which started the first gold rush in Southern Africa the following year.

[4] In 1869 the Englishman Daniel Francis came to hunt for gold on the river, before heading south to the Kimberley diamond fields in 1870.

[8] The river feeds the Ntimbale Dam, with a storage capacity of 26,370,000 cubic metres (931,000,000 cu ft).

[9] The dam, commissioned in 2008, supplies water to villages throughout the North East District.

Mining of this sand has caused the water table to drop, and may also contribute to flooding.