Name and Location
West Rand tailings retreatment project (WRTRP), Gauteng, South Africa.

Client
Sibanye Gold.

Project Description
The WRTRP involves the construction of a large-scale central processing plant (CPP) for the recovery of gold, uranium and sulphur from the Sibanye tailings deposits and current arisings. The CPP, which will be located within a 35 km radius of the West Rand tailings resources, will be developed in phases and could potentially treat up to four-million tons a month of tailings and current arisings. The recovery of uranium and sulphur will be added as the project progresses.

Value
Not stated.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa has been awarded a contract to conduct a definitive feasibility study (DFS) on Sibanye Gold’s WRTRP.

The DFS follows a ‘gap phase’, which is currently under way, during which additional metallurgical testwork is being undertaken to optimise the prefeasibility study flowsheet design, reduce capital and operating expenditure and further reduce gold and uranium residue grades.

The gap phase and the DFS are being executed over a 12- to 15-month period, targeting capital and operating expenditure accuracy estimates of about 10 %.

The DFS will evaluate the feasibility of developing the CPP, with the plant designed to initially process one-million tons a month.

The gap phase is the bridging period to complete all testwork and trade-off studies.

Initially, reclamation of tailings will use a new gold-processing module and uranium float cells (part of the CPP) for the extraction of gold and, with the uranium concentrate, be transported to Sibanye’s Ezulwini uranium extraction facility for the extraction of uranium.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa (DFS).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Sibanye Gold investor relations, James Wellsted, tel +27 11 278 9600 or email james.wellsted@sibanyegold.co.za.
Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa, tel +27 11 899 9111 or email enquiries: TMM@tenova.com.