PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior gold developer West Wits Mining is evaluating the uranium potential at its Witwatersrand Basin project, in South Africa.

Speaking on the second day of Paydirt’s Africa Downunder conference, in Perth, West Wits MD Jac van Heerden noted that the project had an exploration target of between 12-billion and 16-billion pounds of uranium.

“We are drilling three confirmation boreholes, and these will be used as the basis for a decision to continue with the drilling programme or to convert our current exploration target into a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource.

“It’s an exciting project that we have embarked on, and we will update the market as we progress through this,” Van Heerden said.

The company in August revised the definitive feasibility study (DFS) into the Qala Shallows deposit, at the Witwatersrand Basin gold project, resulting in lower all-in sustaining costs (AISC) and higher returns.

The revised DFS resulted in a $52/oz reduction in AISC, which is now estimated at $1 093/oz, with a steady-state AISC of $962/oz, deceasing from the $1 145/oz and the $1 028/oz respectively in the original DFS.

Peak steady-state production has been estimated at 55 000 oz/y over a ten-year period, with the mine to average 43 000 oz/y over its 15.7-year mine life. West Wits reported a 19% increase, or $29-million increase in the expected pretax net present value, which is now estimated at $180-million, while the pretax internal rate of return has increased from 35% to 38%.

A 12 000 oz increase to the declared ore reserve now placed it at 3.2-million tonnes, grading 2.81 g/t gold for 290 000 oz of contained gold.

The revised DFS estimates peak funding of $63-million over a three-year period. West Wits noted that although the total capital required had reduced, peak funding requirements increased from the $48-million estimated in the original DFS. This is mainly due to the accelerated production build-up which requires additional mining equipment and underground development at an earlier stage of the project.