ASX-listed exploration and development company West Wits Mining announced last week that it had submitted two mining permit applications for the Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP) to the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), and that the company remained on schedule to lodge the WBP’s full mining right application later this month.

“The board anticipates the approval process for these permit areas could take up to six months, as the regulator places strong emphasis on legacy environmental rehabilitation efforts and community engagement,” reported West Wits.

The company noted that it had already demonstrated its capacity to meet the obligations set out by the DMR through its efforts on the Kimberley Central openpit operation.

It expects that, if approval is granted within six months and mining operations are expedited, then ore production, gold output and net cash flow should “materially increase by year-end”.

West Wits, through its appointed environmental consultancy, SLR Consulting, hosted a series of public scoping meetings from April 3 to 6, where SLR explained the project and possible environmental impacts and processes to “interested and affected parties”, in line with the scoping and environmental-impact assessment (EIA) processes mandated by the National Environmental Management Act.

According to the documents prepared by SLR, the proposed project will produce ore that will be transported to existing processing plants for refinement and

sale, and will comprise a combination of opencast mining and the refurbishing of existing underground shafts and infrastructure to conduct longer-[term underground mining operations.

Opencast mining activities will include conventional load and haul, using modern methods and equipment that are less intrusive on communities.

Underground mining methods during the later phases will include conventional as well as mechanised underground (where appropriate) stoping methods.

SLR stated that it was anticipated that up to 350 000 t/y of ore would be mined from both the opencast and underground resources.

Opencast mining activities will take place during normal working hours from Monday to Friday, whereas underground mining activities will take place 16 to 24 hours a day during the week, depending on the number of shifts, as well as every second Saturday. Employment numbers will be confirmed as part of the EIA process. Employees are to be sourced from the local communities and the greater

Johannesburg area.

SLR noted that the planned life-of-mine (LOM),based on the current mine plan, was about 30 years. The LOM for the opencast pits was expected to be five years, and the

construction phase for the underground mine would take between five and seven years.