Name: Blanket mine.

Location: South-west Zimbabwe, about 15 km north-west of Gwanda, in Matabeleland South.

Mine Owner/s: Caledonia Mining Corporation.

Brief Description: The Blanket mine is a well-established Zimbabwean gold mine. It is a cluster of mines including Jethro, Blanket, Feudal, AR South, AR Main, Sheet, Eroica and Lima.

The current Blanket mining area has eight ore shoots in the producing section of the mine. The majority of the mine production is currently sourced from the AR Main and AR South orebodies, with a lesser contribution from the Blanket, Eroica and Lima reefs.

Brief History: Following periodic artisanal mining, the Blanket mine was acquired in 1904 by the Matabele Reefs and Estate Company. Mining and metallurgical operations started in 1906.

From 1912 to 1916, mining was conducted by the Forbes Rhodesia Syndicate. According to Caledonia, there are no reliable records of mining for the period from 1917 to 1941 and it is possible that operations were negatively impacted on by political instability during World War One and World War Two.

In 1941, then owner FDA Payne mined the property before selling it to Falconbridge in 1964. Falconbridge operated the mine until September 1993, after which Kinross Gold Corporation took over the property.

The Blanket mine is currently 49%-owned and operated by Caledonia, which completed the acquisition of the mine from Kinross in April 2006.

The mine restarted production in April 2009 after a temporary shutdown, owing to the economic difficulties in Zimbabwe.

Primary Metals/Minerals: Gold.

Secondary Metals/Minerals: None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Blanket mine is situated on the north-western limb of the Archaean Gwanda greenstone belt. Rock units at the mine strike north to south, and dip to the west and in some areas, south-west.

Active Blanket mineral deposits occur in the immediately overlying mafic unit. The mafic unit, which hosts the gold mineralisation, is mostly a metabasalt with some remnants of pillow basalts. Regionally, the rock is a fine-grained massive amphibolite with localised shear planes. The entire sequence is cut by a regional dolerite sill from the south, through the Blanket mine, to the Smiler deposit that is situated about 3 km north of the mine. Mineralisation at Vubachikwe is hosted in banded iron formation interlayers.

The gold deposits are found around a low-angle transgressive shear zone.

Reserves: Total proven reserves as at 2018 were estimated at 130 000 oz of gold. Probable reserves were estimated at 250 000 oz of gold.

Resources: Total Indicated resources as at 2018 were estimated at 425 000 oz of gold. Inferred resources were estimated at 963 000 oz of gold.

Mining Method: Longhole open stoping is used in the wider gold bodies and underhand stoping methods in the narrow orebodies.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Mine infrastructure comprises underground workings with head gear and hoist facilities, a process plant, workshops and a tailings dam. Stores, workshops and offices, as well as an assay laboratory, are located adjacent to the mine shafts.

The Blanket mine gold plant comprises crushing, milling, carbon-in-leach and batch elution electrowinning circuits.

Prospects: In April 2021, Caledonia opened its new Central Shaft, which is the deepest shaft of any gold mine in Zimbabwe. The shaft will allow for rock, men and material to be hoisted on a daily basis, which will facilitate the planned expansion in mine capacity targeting 80 000 oz/y of gold production.

Contact Details:
Caledonia Mining Corporation
Tel +44 1534 679800
Email info@caledoniamining.com
Website https://www.caledoniamining.com/