The discovery of the platiniferous Merensky Reef in 1924

The discovery of the platiniferous Merensky Reef in the Bushveld Complex may have resulted from a geological misunderstanding, because the initially discovered platiniferous ore bodies, which are now known to be discordant pipes, were actually considered to have been part of a concordant layer of ultrabasic rock within a noritic sequence. The Merensky Reef may therefore have been discovered as part of a search for other" similar layers. However, there is another possibility. Merensky reported that the very first panned platinum was associated with gold. Neither the pipes nor the nearby UG2 chromitite layer contain much gold, whereas the Merensky Reef contains a modest amount. Hence, the initially panned platinum and gold may have come from: the Merensky Reef, not the pipes as is generally assumed, and Merensky may have been searching for the source which contained both gold and platinum.