Orkney is a gold mining town situated in the Klerksdorp district of the North West province, South Africa. It lies on the banks of the Vaal River ap…Orkney is a gold mining town situated in the Klerksdorp district of the North West province, South Africa. It lies on the banks of the Vaal River approximately 180 km from Johannesburg near the N12. The town was named after the Orkney Isles off the north coast of Scotland, the birthplace of Simon Fraser, one of the gold mining pioneers of the 1880s. The town was proclaimed in 1940 on the farm Witkoppen, where Fraser had first started gold mining.