Photo by: Duane Daws
RANDFONTEIN (miningweekly.com) – Gold producer Sibanye Gold on Wednesday announced a 65% hike in its gold reserves to 32.7-million ounces, and its gold resources to 128.7-million ounces, after absorbing its two latest acquisitions, Cooke and Wits Gold.
Sibanye VP of mineral resources and mine planning Gerhard van Vuuren said this was a steep rise on the 13.5-million ounces of gold reserves recorded in 2012.
The company’s acquisition of the Cooke underground operations had boosted its gold reserves by 1.84-million ounces and brought 18.99-million ounces of gold resources to the expanded portfolio.
Cooke’s tailings storage facilities and retreatment operations added another 2.6-million ounces.
“There is enormous upside potential at this project,” Van Vuuren said at the Sibanye Academy in Randfontein during a site visit.
Sibanye had acquired Gold One’s 74% stake in the Cooke operation, which also added uranium resources of 54.3-million pounds to Sibanye’s portfolio, earlier this year, and was currently concluding its buyout of Wits Gold, which further boosted gold reserves.
Wits Gold’s De Bron and Bloemhoek projects expanded Sibanye’s overall gold reserves by 8.5-million ounces and boasted gold resources of 42-million ounces.
Further, Sibanye’s Kloof, Driefontein and Beatrix (KDB) operations contributed a 2.2-million-ounce increase in total gold reserves, with KDB now holding gold reserves of 19.7-million ounces and resources of 64.9-million ounces.
Meanwhile, the collective Wits Gold projects increased uranium resources by 107.8-million pounds, which brought Sibanye’s total uranium resources to 282.3-million pounds.
Sibanye’s uranium reserves now stood at 102.83-million pounds, including the 43-million pounds of uranium reserves at KDB.