Welkom (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈvɛlkɔm]) is a town in the Free State province of South Africa, located about 140 kilometres (90 mi) northeast of Bloemfontein, the provincial capital.

The city's Sesotho name, Matjhabeng means 'where nations meet', derived from the migrant labour system, where people of various countries such as Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique etc.

A settlement was laid out on a farm named "Welkom" (which is the Afrikaans and Dutch word for "welcome") after gold was discovered in the region, and it was officially proclaimed a town in 1948.

They returned to England to test the samples they had extracted, but died before reaching their destination when their ship sank in the Bay of Biscay.

He gathered samples of exposed strata near an outcrop, which by then was part of Hendrik Petrus Klopper's farm Aandenk.

He too did not succeed in obtaining any interest from companies until October 1932, when he presented his findings to Allan Roberts and Mannie Jacobs.

Jacobs managed to interest two men, Fritz Marx and Peter Woolf, in the venture and the Wit Extensions Company was formed later that year.

Although the borehole, which by then penetrated more than 1200 metres, yielded 120-inch pennyweights of gold (roughly 480 centimetre grams per ton), it was not enough to garner financial assistance and the operation had to close due to depleted finances.

(For gold ores to be payable in South Africa, the grade must typically exceed 960 cengrams – the equivalent of 8 grams per ton over a 120 cm stope width, which after dilution will yield 4g/t in the mill).

However, the discovery of gold-bearing reef in the Klerksdorp area in 1933 by the Anglo American Corporation encouraged geologists and others with vision to see the northwestern Free State as a potential gold field.

On 14 February 1968, after 21 years of existence, Welkom received city status, and celebrated this event with the opening of the Civic Centre by Mrs Martie du Plessis.

[3] During the decline of the Apartheid era, race relations were particularly problematic as many White South Africans felt threatened by the eventuality of a regime change.

The National Party mayor ran foul of his White constituency when he proposed the opening of a taxi rank in the business district of Welkom.

Aggrieved residents of the city then sought to humiliate him to dissuade him from authorising the erection of the facility, by assaulting him and a security guard, while he was officiating at the event.

This weather event proved to be the most devastating recorded, from the financial and insurance point of view, in South Africa to date, destroying 4,000 homes.

[citation needed][10] This is encouraged by flow design, the minimum of stop streets and the total absence of traffic lights and parking meters in the Central Business District.

This basin situated on the Kaapvaal Craton,[15] is filled by a 6-kilometre thick succession of sedimentary rocks, which extends laterally for hundreds of kilometres.

Mining has taken place as mostly deep-level underground, exploiting the narrow, generally shallow dipping tabular reefs.

The reef consists of multiple conglomerate units, separated by thin quartzitic zones, often totalling up to 4 metres thick.

It consists of multiple conglomerate bands of up to 4m thick and a selected mining cut is usually required to optimise the ore-body.

After three years of excavation, a diverse fauna that includes fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals was recovered.

Mammals ranged in size from rodents to mammoths, including an array of proboscideans, perissodactyls and artiodactyls, alongside rare carnivores.

[citation needed] The city and immediate surroundings are dominated by the headgears and reduction plants of several gold and uranium mining companies, including St Helena, Unisel, Welkom, Western Holdings, Free State Geduld, President Brand, President Steyn, Erfdeel Dankbaarheid, Phakisa,[20] and Tshepong.

[22] Located about 7.5 km from Welkom, a kimberlite pipe, was discovered in 1890 and mined from a single shaft until the start of the Boer War in 1899.

Other minerals found in the Welkom vicinity include calcite, iridium, isoferroplatinum, muscovite, pyrophylite, rutile and uranite.

Due to the declining gold price in the nineties, the manufacturing industry was promoted as a further means to support the local economy.

[24] The Welkom region forms part of the Maize Triangle, which stretches over three of South Africa's provinces.