Areas We Cover

We drill boreholes and build the water systems that go with them across Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and the West Rand. The pages below are organised by what is actually under the ground, because that is what determines how a borehole is drilled, what it is likely to yield, what the water is like and what it costs.

Greater Johannesburg sits across several broadly distinct settings. Suburbs within one of them share the same rock and the same drilling behaviour, so the honest thing to do is group them rather than invent differences that do not exist. Suburb boundaries are not geological boundaries, so a stand near the edge of a group may sit on its neighbour's ground.

The northern suburbs: Johannesburg Dome granite

North of the Parktown and Houghton ridges the bedrock is the ancient granite and gneiss of the Johannesburg Dome. A mantle of decomposed granite sits over hard fresh rock, and the water is mostly found where the two meet and in the fractures and dyke contacts below.

The outer dome: Midrand, Fourways and the west

Toward Midrand, Kyalami, Fourways and the western suburbs the same granite basement continues under larger stands, estates and smallholdings. The weathered mantle can be thicker here, demand is often larger, and spruit valleys and dyke lines guide where to drill.

The ridges: Witwatersrand quartzite and shale

The east-west ridges just north of the city centre are hard Witwatersrand quartzite and shale, dipping south. They are the slowest ground to drill in the area, yields depend on fractures and bedding, and steep, terraced stands often make access the harder problem.

The mining belt: Central Rand reef ground

Along the old gold-mining belt from Roodepoort through Johannesburg south to Germiston and Boksburg, the rock is Witwatersrand quartzite and conglomerate, much of it undermined. Rising mine water means groundwater quality has to be tested before anything else is decided.

The East Rand: Karoo cover over older rock

Across much of Ekurhuleni the surface rock is Karoo shale, sandstone and tillite, cut by dolerite, lying over dolomite or Witwatersrand rock at varying depth. Dolerite contacts are the main targets, iron is common in the water, and dolomite underneath brings its own rules.

The West Rand dolomite

Around Krugersdorp the Malmani dolomite is the region's strongest aquifer and its most demanding ground to drill, sitting close to the West Rand mining belt where acid mine drainage first surfaced. Stability and water quality both have to be dealt with.

The south: Klipriviersberg lava

South of the reef, Alberton sits on the Ventersdorp lavas of the Klipriviersberg. Fresh lava is hard and dense, it weathers to heavy clay, and the water is in the weathered zone, joints and flow tops.

Not Listed?

The list above is not the limit of where we work. If your suburb is not on it, send your street and we will tell you what the ground is likely to be and what a borehole there would involve.

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