West Rand Consolidated Lease
Emerald Gold Project
The Emerald Gold Project is considered attractive for exploitation because of its grade, shallow depth and close proximity to the processing infrastructure. The Emerald Gold Project is located on the West Rand Consolidated Lease over an approximate 2km section of the Kimberley Reef.
West Wits announced its maiden Ore Reserve estimate at the Emerald Gold Project on 18th October 2009. The initial Ore Reserve estimate is 59,000 ounces of gold at 1.7 g/t down to 55m, which is the maximum planned depth of the pits. The project consists of three pits being developed.
Table 1. Emerald Reserve Table
Table 2. Emerald Resources Table
It remains the Company's intention to develop further near surface resources along strike from the existing Emerald Reserve as the Company believes there is further exploration upside at Emerald both to the south and the east. The continuity of these reefs, supported by current and historical data, provides confidence for ongoing exploration to investigate these targets.
With ongoing exploration success, the Emerald Gold Project continues to impress the Company as a near surface opportunity with the potential to grow as further strike continuity of the mineralisation is defined. Thus far, defined resources have outperformed the Company's exploration target for the Kimberley Reef on the West Rand Consolidated Lease over 6 times. The original target for the Emerald Gold Project was 32,000 - 38,000 ounces of Au. The Emerald Gold Project together with resources attributable to the Monarch and Emerald East areas gives a total resource (to 0 - 85m below surface) of 2.16Mt @ 2.02 g/t for approx. 140,000 oz excluding the reserve figure of 59,000 ounces Au.
Figure 1. 3D Emerald Project Plan View of Pit Designs Click to Enlarge
The Emerald Reserve confirms the economic viability of the Emerald Gold Project, and validates part one of the exploration model, that economic near surface gold mineralisation still exists on these historic leases. This project can produce approximately 20,000 ounces of gold for three years.
The development of the Emerald Reserve provides a significant advancement in terms of the Company's strategy to fund exploration of further near surface targets such as strike extensions at Emerald and begin the investigation of the potentially more substantial underground gold and uranium targets.
Monarch JORC Resource
The Company was very pleased with the initial Monarch Mineral Resource due to the near surface high grade mineralisation which may increase the current estimated 3 year life of mine for the Emerald Gold Project ("EGP"). The Monarch Mineral Resource announced on the 26th of May 2010, was 792,000 tonnes @ 2.9 g/t for 73,800 oz Au down to 80m vertical depth.
This resource was achieved at a discovery cost of $3.50 per ounce. This result confirms the potential for additional significant near surface gold resources along strike from the EGP and highlights the near surface opportunities that still remain within the Company's leases. West Wits is confident that additional drilling will upgrade the resource category of the Monarch Mineral Resource which it believes, has the potential to extend the current production life of the EGP.
The Company is also confident that mineralisation should continue along strike through the current 1km 'gap' between the Monarch Mineral Resource and link up with the EGP (refer Figure 1). This confidence is based on the Monarch Mineral Resource estimate, the known continuity of the Reef over 9km within the Company's leases, and historic underground mining data (Figure 2).
The Monarch Pit Area, which was previously mined to approximately 30m depth, offers the Company a window through which it can undertake further evaluation of the Monarch Mineral Resource. The Company also believes further drilling and evaluation of the Monarch Mineral Resource has the potential to define economic mineral resources which as well as supplementing the EGP may in fact provide an ideal location to undertake the initial EGP mining operation, as the overburden has already been removed.
West Wits looks forward to progressing the Monarch Mineral Resource as part of the southern extension of the EGP by:
- Further drilling to test the potential of the 'Gap' between Monarch and EGP
- Upgrading the Monarch resource category by infill drilling
- Reviewing the historical underground plans to aid drill targeting
Figure 2.
Historical Ownership and Acitivites
Mining commenced in 1887 on the West Rand Consolidated Lease by Botha's Reef Mining Company, with Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd as its first directors. A series of acquisitions and mergers with companies such as West Rand, Violet, Lancaster, Flora and Yank mines subsequently resulted in the formation of West Rand Consolidated Mines Limited.
The West Rand Consolidated gold mine was registered on 20th August 1903. It was established through the amalgamation of a number of the small outcrop mines.
Milling operations began in 1908 and the sinking of the first shaft, the East Shaft, began a year earlier. By 1909, the shaft was completed, having intersected South Reef at a depth of 312m. This shaft remained in production until 1957 when it was finally sealed after producting 2.9m ozs of gold. As part of several expansion programs the milling capcity was trebled and a series of new shafts were established to exploit the deeper sections of the mine. It was with these shafts taht West Rand Consolidated took its place in the world shaft sinking records. South Shaft was sunk 128m in May 1932, Deep Shaft 138m in May 1940 and Monarch Shaft 232m in September 1955, with all development being focused on the Main and South Reefs.
Om 1949, the South African pound was devalued and this, together with an increase in the gold price, gave impetus for the exploitation of low-grade ores. Four major reef horizons were tested for uranium. The Bird Reefs, of which the Monarch, White and Upper Monarch are part, gave the highest values on the Witwatersrand. The fact that the reef had already been exposed placed the mine in a favourable position for embarking on uranium production. In 1952 the uranium plant commenced production.
West Rand Consolidated became a joint producer of gold and uranium, the old gold shafts continuing with normal production whilst the new Monarch shaft, completed in 1955, became the first shaft sunk primarily for the mining of uranium. After the initial uranium boom, a measure of uncertainty crept into the market and eventually, at the beginning of 1975, uranium production was stopped completely to allow mining to concentrate on gold which was rapidly rising in price. An upturn in the uranium market saw the resumption of production in February 1976 and uranium was once again an important revenue producer. During 1981 production was again stopped, the mine having produced over thirteen million kilograms of uranium.
Historical Mining and Production
