CARLETONVILLE

town, principal mining centre of the Far West Witwatersrand goldfields, Gauteng province, South Africa, west of Johannesburg. Carletonville was originally an unplanned settlement established between 1937 and 1957 as various companies developed their gold-mining claims. In 1959 it was officially designated a town, being named for Guy Carleton Jones, a local mining director. Carletonville's prosperity is heavily dependent on the continued production of gold. Uranium is often recovered as a by-product of gold production, and the town contains some light industrial development. Situated in a dolomite area, the environs of the town have suffered from sinkhole destruction. By 1979 Western Deep Levels Ltd. operated the world's deepest gold mine (extending to 12,392 feet below the Earth's surface) in the locality. Pop. (1985) 97,874.