Piet Retief has its own gold mine. The Klipwal Mine is located approximately 60 kilometres outside Piet Retief. Reported recent (1981 to 2003) historical production from the Klipwal Mine is 170,000 ounces at a recovered gold grade of approximately 4.4 grams per tonne. 174,000 tons milled at a average reported head grade of 6.3 g/t.
As teenagers we used to drive the long dirt road down to the mine to swim in the Pongola River and enjoy the mines club facility.