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Central Rand Gold a contiguous crown
Greg James
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What do the Consolidated Main Reef, Crown Mines and City Deep all have in common? All were originally thought to be separate ore deposits, but Central Rand Gold (CRG) is presenting itself as SA's newest gold junior mining company, whose success lies partly in its exploration work affirming that the central Witwatersrand reef runs jointly as a contiguous ore body. CEO Greg James tells Laura Cornish about the company's vision and strategy to achieve its 1mozpa gold target by 2012.
Although there still remains an extensive gold mining presence on the gold-rich Witwatersrand, shared amongst SA's gold mining players, the central portion has, until recently, remained relatively untapped.
And despite being situated in close proximity to Harmony's Evander or Anglo Gold Ashanti's Mponeng mine in Carletonville, CRG is bringing a unique gold development stance to SA's common deep-level mining methods.
"Having ascertained the deposits' contiguous nature, our overall mining strategy involves bulk, high volume mining to a maximum depth of between 300m and 500m, enabling the company to run at highly cost-efficient levels," James explains.
In addition to this, all mining activity will be accessed via three declines, in spite of the 66 shafts spread across the 66 479ha area, which CRG will use for exploration purposes.
Portal development will begin next year.
Another cost-saving measure, although not completely welcomed by the local market, will see all the crushing facilities located underground - a relatively new processing method, whose success has yet to be fully verified in this country.
The processing plant will be semi-mobile, and constructed in modules which will each treat 60 000tpm, with gold recoveries between 80% and 90%.
James says this enables backfill mining implementation, and therefore does not necessitate the need for a tailings dam on surface, and directly constitutes towards a feasible project. The positive impact on the environment is obvious.
"Concentrate will be transported to surface, approximating about 10% of the ore processed underground," James adds.
Should its mining practices be successful, CRG should celebrate its first production in the first quarter of 2009 with about 100 000oz produced in its first year, 500 000ozpa in 2010, and 1mozpa in 2012.
Mining life on the 40km strike length is estimated at 30 years, with an indicated resource figure (as at July 2007) of 75mt at 8.9g/t or 21.4moz of gold.
Uranium will be produced as a sludge by-product.
As part of its dual listing on the LSE and JSE, about R1bn was raised for additional exploration in close proximity to its current prospecting area.
The dual listing realised £75m for CRG.
The London market has a healthy appetite for high-risk exploration companies in SA, James explains, following an oversubscription upon its listing in London.
Somewhat disappointing, however, was the lack of enthusiasm from the local market, which remains conservative about young exploration companies with an appetite for unconventional deep-level mining methods.
James hopes to receive the mining licence for CRG's mining area in July or August next year.
CRG has already fulfilled its black economic empowerment quota with BEE partner, Puno Gold Investments, and aims to provide a lot of local employment opportunities for people in close surrounding areas - some 4000 jobs when the project is running at it optimum capacity.
Between 1886 and the early 1970s, the central rand gold fields are calculated to have produced about 247moz of gold. James suggests that there is still about 40% of the entire world's gold still left across the Wits gold basin.
"Each month we have something to show for what we are doing, we are meeting our targets, and reassuring the market that it can take CRG seriously," James concludes.
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