Sigismund Neumann

Sir Sigismund Neumann (Anglicized name Sigmund) (1857 1916) was a mining magnate (Randlord) and financier on the Witwatersrand. Early life and family Neumann was born in Fürth, Kingdom of Bavaria, on 25 May 1857 to Jewish parents, Gustav and Babette Neumann. In his late teens, he emigrated to Cape Colony to seek his fortune in the Kimberley diamond mines. His brother Ludwig moved to London, where he worked with the financiers Leopold Hirsch & Co., who went into the market for mining shares, and made his way in society. First years on the Rand Neumann began as a diamond buyer for the firm V.A. & E.M. Littkie, but then moved to the Barberton gold fields and founded his own company S. Neumann & Co. when gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand. His staff in Johannesburg included Charles Sydney Goldman, who had moved from agriculture into the mining industry. He became a partner in 1895. Carl Hanau from Freiburg im Breisgau worked on futures contracts. He was made a partner, but moved on to Barnato Bros. Another partner who played a major part in the company was Henry James King, an American. He was one of the diamond syndicate who bought up the output supplied by De Beers. Others employed by Neumann were Henry Hames Friedlander, a member of the Johannesburg Reform Committee, and William Daw, who in 1915 became chairman of the Chamber of Mines. The group became aware of the potential of deep shaft mining.