PRIORITY PAYMENT
West Wits Mining will receive a priority payment equal to the prevailing value of 0.6 g of gold for each tonne of ore mined
Photo by: Bloomberg
Mining has started at ASX-listed gold developer West Wits Mining’s Sol Plaatjies project within the Soweto Cluster prospecting right area, in Johannesburg.
With prestripping completed over the past few weeks, the extraction of the first ore from the openpit is imminent.
A minimum of 130 000 t of ore is to be processed in the first 12 months from the first two of five planned pits, while indications are that at least another 50 000 t of ore will be available in a second stage.
“This is an important milestone for [West Wits] on its path to monetise the significant gold resource at the Soweto Cluster. “Sol Plaatjies is the first step, providing cash flow that will be applied to expedite our development plans for the whole tenement,” West Wits chairperson Michael Quinert said in a press statement last week
The Sol Plaatjies project will remove and process a section of some 1 500 m of Kimberley reef outcrop adjacent to the village of Sol Plaatjies on the northern fringe of Soweto.
The extraction of the reef outcrop is to be undertaken through an opencut operation to remove ore to a depth of about 30 m for transport to a processing plant in the area.
Following extraction of reef, the land will be progressively rehabilitated to enable the start of the development of an affordable housing project that will incorporate open parkland over the mined-out areas.
Planning and design are under way to bring numerous other ore positions to the point of mineability within the previously announced 1.3-million-ounce Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource.
Principal mining contractor Mintails Mining SA will undertake and fund all preparatory works, ore extraction, transport, processing, gold recovery and rehabilitation costs at Sol Plaatjies.