Diamonds of the former deep

Peter Delmar: Millions of years ago - 30-million, to be precise - large parts of the Northern Cape were covered with a freshwater inland sea that was home to lots and lots of diatoms.

I went to have a look at South Africa's leading diatom factory on a farm 30km or so outside the little dorp of Olifantsfontein the other day. When somebody suggested I go there I had not the foggiest idea what a diatom was. I thought they were suggesting I go to a "dynamite" factory and made a mental note not to light up a ciggie until I was well clear of the place.

Still not entirely sure what I was letting myself in for, I arrived at a pretty nondescript bit of scrubby farmland with a rather basic prefabricated warehouse-type structure. Behind it people were digging whitish stuff out of the ground.

Stepping out of the bakkie, a middle-aged white man assailed me with a hearty greeting and before I could stop him, was telling me all about the wonderful world of diatoms.

I'm still not quite sure how to describe diatoms. They are - or were - algae and I'm not entirely certain whether algae are plants or very basic types of little beastie.

In any event, the diatoms of the Northern Cape, like diatoms the world over, had shells of silica. And this is what makes them important today.

In this ancient sea there were gazillions of diatoms and they left behind thousands of tons of their silica-rich shells. This is why I was at the farm outside Olifantsfontein.

The Northern Cape has some of the world's richest, purest diatom deposits, the middle-aged white man explained to me. His name is Pieter Maritz and he owns the farm. Until the 1990s diatoms (they occur as off-white/greyish bands of clayish, softish minerals) were basically used for filtering stuff.

Then, a few years ago, people in agriculture started twigging on to the fact that by mixing a bit of diatom powder into their animals' feed they killed off bugs. Chucking the stuff on the ground, animals, even wild ones, naturally realised that they should roll around in it, and that helped to control external parasites.

By ingesting the diatoms, livestock got fatter and healthier and more profitable. You can even use it as a natural pesticide on crops. And, best of all, there is a lot of diatomaceous earth around, probably 30 years' supply or so, so it's pretty affordable.

Maritz and a few other people owning diatomaceous land organised themselves into a company, SA Diatomite, which sells the processed material to a company established by Maritz's whizzkid son, Isak.

I haven't met Isak yet, but he is the real hero of this little story. He's already won two heavyweight entrepreneur-of-the-year awards and it's his company, Diatoms Organic Animal Health, that is creating markets and flogging the stuff left, right and centre.

At the moment there are 18 people working at the little diatom factory on Maritz's farm, but soon they will be moving to a state-of-the-art facility with machines and production lines and everything that cost R5.4-million to put up and equip at a place called Deben.

The number of people employed will rise to 71 almost as soon as the new factory becomes operational (which will happen when Eskom gets around to connecting it). But the workers are not mere subsistence labourers.

They've organised themselves into a business called Temba Organics that owns 25% of SA Diatomite and, as certain milestones are reached, will increase that shareholding until they might end up owning the whole thing.

The new factory was paid for by ARM/Assmang's Khumani iron ore mine as a local economic development project, and the land was donated by the municipality.

The idea behind the mine's investment was to create sustainable jobs. As Maritz tells me, the outcome is that, instead of having some flash-harry, cash-flush investor arrive from Joburg or Geneva or Jakarta and cream off the profits, the benefits stay in the local area, one of the most economically deprived in the country.

At the factory they're going to process and package the diatoms into a wide range of items (one day making tablets for humans) and even start a veggie garden that, thanks to the fact that the plants are grown with diatoms, can claim to be seriously organic.

The diatom story is one of those great little off-the-beaten-track success stories you hardly ever hear about.

But it just goes to prove that there is some good news out there.

• Peter Delmar was working for ARM when he encountered the wonderful world of diatoms.