Kathu

Province

Kathu is a town in the municipality Gamagara, John Taolo Gaetsewe district, Northern Cape Province in South Africa. It lies at an altitude of 1230 meters above sea level and 2011 had 11,510 inhabitants.

Founded in 1974, Kathu received (city under the trees by the camel thorn trees around ) 1979 status as a city. The nearest towns are Postmasburg and Olifantshoek north, around 50 kilometers away.

Economically, the city lives from mining, yster en Staal Korperasie van Suid Afrika ( Yskor ) operates here the Sishen mine, one of the largest open-pit iron ore mines in the world. Huge special trucks to transport loads of up to 170 tons. On the specially built for the railway Sishen - Saldanha Erzabtransport take some of the longest iron ore transport trains in the world.

In the surroundings of a number of prehistoric tools have been found that document a settlement of the area for about 750,000 years. 1979 and 1982 found near the town of stone peaks from the archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 were dated to an age of about 500,000 years. They may serve as spear points with which they would be the oldest Kompositwaffen this type.