Senwes Scenario December 2016 / January 2017 | Page 12

•••• AREA F O C U S Odendaalsrus O dendaalsrus was founded on 12 December 1912 and used to be the mother city of the Free State Gold-fields. Odendaalsrus is also the oldest gold town in the Lejweleputswa district and used to be a few smaller farms before it became a town. Gold was discovered on the farm Geduld in 1946 and it forms part of the Matjhabeng Municipality with Welkom, Allanridge, Hennenman and Virginia. ODENDAALSRUS BRANCH JD du Plessis is the branch manager at Odendaalsrus as well. He has been involved in the industry for more than 12 years, 10 years of which at Senwes. JD is one of only two branch managers in the Hinterland stable who manage two branches, Welkom and Odendaalsrus, the other one being Johnny Bezuidenhout, who manages the Wesselsbron and Tierfontein branches. 11 staff members work at this branch, eight of which on a permanent basis. THE BRANCH ITSELF The current branch was built in 1994 and the old Senwes branch was situated as you approach Odendaalsrus from the Welkom and Allanridge side. Some producers remember buying from Senwes as early as 1966. SENWES ODENDAALSRUS SILO Senwes Grainlink's Odendaalsrus silo was erected in 1971. It started off with 10 bins and a decade later, in 1981, the rest of the silo bins were added, which brought the total to 19 bins. The silo manager is Braam Jacobs and he has been working for Senwes for more than 22 years. The silo also ha s four other staff members, Arthur Radebe (Control Panel Operator), Lazarus Sebidla (Tractor Driver) The Odendaalsrus silo has 19 bins and a capacity of 96 000 tons. 10 DEC 2016/JAN 2017 • SENWES Scenario 104 years old! Odendaalsrus’ centenary celebrations were held in 2012. and Jeremia Hlaza and Kenneth Mokomatsili (General Workers). A network of silos are within reach of the Odendaalsrus silo, with Allanridge and Losdoorns being the nearest and Welgeleë, Geneva, Hennenman and Wesselsbron within a 50 kilometre radius. SILO BINS The silo has 7 bins of 7 400 tons each, 7 bins with a capacity of 4 800 tons each and 4 bins with a capacity of 1 000 tons each. The total capacity of the silo is approximately 96 000 tons. The silo has two aeration fans of 18.5 kW each as well as a drying kiln. ALLANRIDGE The Allanridge Study Group is active in this region. They have approximately 50 members and Francois Steyn is the newly elected chairman. Allanridge also has an interesting history. In 1933 Allan Roberts sunk a borehole, which indicated the possibility of gold in the area. Further exploration resulted in the sinking of three mines, namely Riebeeck Gold Mine, as well as Jeanette and Loraine Gold Mines. Flamingos are another charac­ teristic of the area. Thousands of flamingos can be seen in the Allanridge silo area. And so the circles end, until your next visit to this region...