‘No economically viable gold deposits in Harding’
Following an investigation into the KwaMachi community’s claims of having found gold in a quarry near Harding, on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, the Council for Geoscience (CGS) has established that there is no economic gold in either the quarry or its surroundings.
All concentrations were significantly low and within normal values in the rocks, CGS said last week.
The council explained that mineral sulphides such as pyrite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite, cobalite, sphalerite and galena occurred in the quarry and that pyrite and chalcopyrite had similar appearances to gold and could easily be mistaken for the precious metal.
The community of KwaMachi last year claimed to have found gold in the area. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe tasked the CGS to investigate the veracity of the claims.
In June 2018, the CGS conducted investigations at the quarry.
In the first investigation, rock samples were collected and analysed at the Mintek laboratory, in Johannesburg. The 150 m by 150 m quarry was used primarily as a source of aggregates for improving the condition of the local roads.
Although the first set of results showed that the quarry did not contain gold, the CGS decided to conduct further investigations.
Pending geological evidence of the purported gold, the quarry was closed to allow the CGS to conduct a second investigation, which was conducted in October 2018.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation