London-listed URA Holdings has completed essential workstreams at its 74%-owned Gravelotte emerald mine, in Limpopo, South Africa, ahead of restarting mining operations.
Some of the work completed includes upgrading water supply and water storage capacity for processing operations, completing site security upgrades, establishing or upgrading main haulage roads between the openpits and the processing plant, upgrading main electrical infrastructure and rehabilitating 1.5 ha of historic gold slimes and tailings.
The company has also upgraded dewatering and screening infrastructure and completed engineering drawings to upgrade the existing processing plant to include an additional crushing and milling circuit, as well as a vibrator, to increase throughput.
“We are now focusing our activities on preparing for the restart of mining and processing operations.
“Although we were fortunate to already have significant historic mine infrastructure in place, some repairs were still required. I commend the team on the ground in South Africa for getting us closer to restarting mining operations at Gravelotte on a tight budget,” says chairperson Edward Nealon.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Gravelotte was the largest emerald mine in the world, and 113-million carats were recovered over its lifespan from 1929 to 2002.
Since buying a stake in the mine through owner company Gem Venus Holdings, URA has established the first-ever code-compliant independent resource on the project, which identified 29-million carats of contained emeralds.
This resource represents a life-of-mine of more than ten years.