Old mining posters at Gold Reef City.

Well, I did it again. I forgot to post my Monday Geology Picture on Monday. Sorry about that! I had a long, busy day at work. After work, my husband and I went to see a movie with some friends and only arrived home fairly late.

This week, I thought I would share a picture of some old mining posters which I saw on an underground mine tour (of an inactive mine) at a place called Gold Reef City in Johannesburg, South Africa. At Gold Reef City the area surrounding an abandoned gold mine has been turned into a gold mining themed amusement park. Part of the old gold mine has been preserved for tours, and several of the park attractions are about the history of gold mining in Johannesburg. If you ever find yourself in Johannesburg, I highly recommend a visit to Gold Reef City. The history is very interesting, and the rollercoasters and other rides are pretty fun, too!

Here’s a closer view of the mining posters:

A closer view of the old mining posters at Gold Reef City.

Some of the mining posters are written in an interesting pidgin language called Fanagalo, which is a mixture of primarily Zulu, English, and Afrikaans and has been used for many years as a lingua franca among mineworkers in South Africa and, to a lesser extent, in other southern African countries. In recent years, English has been replacing Fanagalo as a lingua franca in the mines, but there are still some mineworkers who speak Fanagalo. The mining posters likely date from the 1960s and 1970s and advocate safety in the mine.