550 Mya
Cape Granite Suite

The Saldanian orogenic event (mountain building) and continental collision (Plate Tectonics) gave rise to an extensive chain of mountains. Deep-seated melting in the roots of these mountains produced pods of buoyant granitic magma which intruded the deformed sediments. 

These granitic magmas intruded the mountain range, and today represent the Cape Granite Suite, exposed in uplifted and eroded roots of the original mountain chain. In some places, the cooling magma introduced mineralised fluids that formed veins and stockworks containing metals like gold, copper, tin, tungsten and molybdenum, mostly in small sub-economic amounts, eg. Zevenwacht, near Stellenbosch..

The oldest of these granitic rocks date from 555 to 540 million years ago. They form large batholiths, with local mixed rocks (migmatite) and contact metamorphism (slate) at their margins. The famous Granite/Malmesbury contact at Sea Point is a good example of such a margin. In 1836 Charles Darwin visited the Sea Point contact, noting the lighter intrusive Cape granite and the darker host Malmesbury rocks.

The granites are well exposed around Cape Town, including the classic Cape Granite/Table Mountain sandstone contact along Chapmans Peak Drive, in the Paarl area, in and around Stellenbosch and the winelands, and in more isolated exposures in the southern Cape area.