8 December 1857 – 28 July 1900
Adolf Goerz was a German-South African mining engineer. He emigrated to Africa around 1888 at the request of his brother-in-law, Georg von Siemens, one of the first board members of Deutsche Bank.
Goerz founded A Goerz & Co 1893 in an area today known as Bruma. The company acquired all of Adolf Goerz’s interests and purchased a total of 326 claims on the Witwatersrand gold fields. A Goerz & Co became the Union Corporation in 1916, which was one of the five original gold mining houses of South Africa.
The Union Corporation owned the East Geduld and Modderfontein Deep Levels mines. In the 1950s, it opened four mines in Evander and the St Helena mine in the Orange Free State. It later established the Impala platinum mine – one of the largest platinum mines in the world. After several mergers and amalgamations, the company would eventually become known as Gencor in 1980, before finally amalgamating with Goldfields in 1998.
Goerz also founded the Rand Electric Works in Brakpan on the East Rand, the forerunner of the electrical supply system to the greater Johannesburg as well as the mining industry throughout the East Rand.
Goerz died on J8 July, 1900 aged 42. After his death, a main road in the East Rand was named after him.