Silver Lakes sits on the eastern ground below the Bronberg, on Pretoria Group rock with quartzite in the higher parts.
Most of the practical complexity here is the estate's rules rather than what is under the ground.
What Is Under Silver Lakes
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Magaliesberg Formation quartzite | The ridge itself and its dip slopes, running east through Pretoria as the Bronberg | Very hard and very slow to drill, and the single largest cost driver on this ground. Yield is entirely fracture-dependent. |
| Silverton Formation shale | The lower ground and valleys on either side of the ridge | Quicker and cheaper per metre than the ridge, though it still needs a fracture zone or an intrusive contact to produce. |
| Scree, colluvium and boulder cover | The ridge footslopes and the upper stands | Loose blocky material of unpredictable thickness. It has to be cased through, and it is also what makes rig access difficult on these stands. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Silver Lakes.
Get a Silver Lakes Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Quartzite is the slowest ground in Pretoria and per-metre rates on the ridge reflect that.
- Two adjacent stands can get very different results which is the nature of fracture-controlled ground.
- Siting is the highest-value decision on this ground, ahead of every equipment choice.
Where We Work Around Silver Lakes
- Silver Lakes Golf Estate
- Silver Woods and Silver Stream approaches
- Bronberg slopes above the estate
- Tijger Vallei boundary
- Estate common areas and golf course surrounds
- Cluster and freestanding stands
- Adjacent estate developments
What to Watch For Here
Golf estate irrigation is a different order of demand. Turf across a golf course needs continuous water through the dry season, which is a scale of demand no single domestic borehole covers. Where estates use groundwater it is normally a properly engineered wellfield with monitoring, not one hole.
Estate approval governs the whole programme. Access routes, permitted working hours, reinstatement standards and where a headworks may be visible are all set by the estate. Those conditions decide the schedule and occasionally the position.
What the Water Is Used For
- Sports turf and institutional landscaping
- Common areas across complexes and estate developments
- Garden irrigation through the dry Highveld winter
- A fallback for when the reticulated supply fails
- Lowering a water bill driven mostly by outdoor use
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Not possible. Between the scree cover and the quartzite beneath it, a driven point stops within the first metre, and the water it would be looking for sits far deeper.
Registration and Abstraction
A completed borehole here should be registered with the City of Tshwane, and the responsibility for that sits with the property owner rather than with the driller. Separately, the National Water Act governs how much you may abstract: reasonable domestic use and small-scale gardening generally fall under Schedule 1, while larger, agricultural or commercial abstraction may require registration or a water use authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation. The position on domestic registration was being actively revised during 2026, so confirm your obligations before drilling rather than afterwards.
Related Services
For the drilling process itself, the geology across the wider metro and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Drilling Pretoria.
Borehole Prices in This Area
Drilling is charged per metre, so depth drives the total. The ranges below are framed for local ground conditions and access.
| Item | Indicative range | What moves it locally |
|---|---|---|
| Drilling, per metre | R600 - R1,400 /m | Nothing in the metro is harder on a bit than this quartzite. Holes on the ridge itself quote at the top of the range, and those on the footslopes below it lower. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R400 - R700 /m | Diameter and class, and how much loose blocky cover has to be cased through. That can change markedly from one end of a stand to the other. |
| Mobilisation and site establishment | R2,500 - R9,000 | Access and site conditions move this; a site visit settles it before quoting. |
| Water survey | R5,000 - R12,000 | Targets structure rather than depth. Worth most where yield is fracture-dependent. |
| Yield testing | R3,500 - R15,000 | Establishes the sustainable rate that pump selection depends on. |
| Pump, supplied and installed | R15,000 - R45,000 | Greater depth means more head, which means a larger pump and heavier cable. |
| Storage and booster | R12,000 - R35,000 | Needed wherever peak demand exceeds the borehole's sustainable rate. |
| Typical complete project | R70,000 - R200,000+ | Everything above, excluding treatment, which depends entirely on the water analysis. |
These are indicative ranges, not a quotation. They are compiled from published South African supplier and contractor pricing to give you a starting point for budgeting. They are not our rate card, and no figure here is a commitment.
Treat them as a broad guide only. Published borehole pricing in South Africa varies enormously - 2026 guides quote per-metre drilling rates for Gauteng ranging from under R300/m to R1,500/m, a spread of more than five to one - because depth, geology, access, specification, distance and fuel costs all move the number. Depth in particular is not known until the hole is finished. Figures generally exclude VAT unless noted, and change over time. Only an itemised written quote against your actual site means anything.
Silver Lakes Borehole FAQs
Can a borehole irrigate a golf course?
Not a single domestic borehole. Course irrigation is a continuous, high-volume demand that generally needs a properly designed wellfield with monitoring and a water use authorisation.
For an individual stand within the estate, a borehole for garden irrigation is a much more modest and achievable proposition.
What does the estate need to approve?
Typically the drilling itself, the rig access route, working hours, where the headworks and any tank will sit, and the reinstatement standard.
Getting that in writing before scheduling is worthwhile, because a rig that arrives and cannot proceed is a wasted mobilisation charge.
Is the ground difficult at Silver Lakes?
It varies with position relative to the ridge. Higher stands hit harder quartzite sooner; lower ground is shale and drills faster.
Yields are fracture-dependent either way, so results differ between neighbouring stands more than owners generally expect.
Would a shared estate borehole be better?
For common areas, usually. One well-sited and properly tested borehole feeding shared storage is more effective and easier to maintain than several small ones.
It also puts the abstraction under a single registration, which is simpler to manage and easier to keep compliant.
DRILLING IN SILVER LAKES?
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