During mining activities fossil woods have been recovered from the abandoned palaeochannels of the Orange River, in the sections known as Auchas and Auchas Main. They are of Early Miocene age based on the associated faunal remains. Some very large logs are over 1m in diameter but most specimens are 10 - 20 cm in diameter, and have been washed downstream and deposited as lag channel deposits. Some of the woods have been identified as members of the Combretaceae: Combretoxylon namaensis Bamford sp. nov., Terminalioxylon crystallinum Bamford sp. nov. and T. orangensis Bamford sp. nov. The new species Burseroxylon africanum Bamford of the Burseraceae is also described here. These fossil woods have been closely compared with equivalent modern woods of known climatic tolerances and it is suggested that the Early Miocene climate along the Orange River was wetter than today's and probably more humid with little seasonality. Comparisons of the calculated Vulnerability Index and Conductivity with other floras indicates
that the woods were from a mesic to dry megathermal forest.