JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s Minerals and Energy Department has approved Vancouver-based Great Basin Gold’s environmental plan for its Burnstone project, in the Mpumalanga province, the company said on Wednesday.

Great Basin Gold will now execute the mining right that was granted in October last year, to its wholly owned subsidiary Southgold Exploration, to mine gold, silver, and aggregate in the Burnstone area’s Area 1.

"This is another important milestone in the history of Great Basin Gold, as it clears the way for commercial mining at the Burnstone project,” CEO and president Ferdi Dippenaar said.

Great Basin Gold targets commercial mining by June 2010, he added.

The mining right was valid for an initial period of 18 years from date of execution, however, Great Basin Gold would apply for an extension of the licensing period, under the terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, which made provision for the renewal of the mining license for periods not exceeding 30 years at a time.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) for Area 2 has now started. It was envisaged that the EIA would be completed by September, after which the Department of Minerals and Energy would be approached for approval to access this mining region by way of a twin-decline shaft.

Great Basin Gold that the current mine plan for Area 2 covered about 7,5-million tons, which would initially extract about 50 000 t/m of.

Although this area would be accessed by a dedicated twin decline-shaft, mining operations would share the surface infrastructure currently established for Area 1, with the exclusion of ventilation shafts.

To date, 80 surface boreholes have been drilled on Area 2. In addition to exploration drilling in Area 4, a further phase of surface drilling was planned to begin during the second half of 2009, in Area 2, to evaluate the area of the decline in more detail, as well as confirm extensions of the Kimberley Reef.

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