Modern Mining October 2017

GOLD

around 670 000 ounces of gold, which means that – at present rates of production – we can mine there for decades. It is never going to be a big mine and I would imagine that the absolute maximum we can get out of it on a yearly basis is around 15 000 ounces. Having said this, it can – and already is – making good money.” Given that he was born on the Durban Roodepoort property and is a mining engineer by profession (he worked for, among others, Rand Mines and the gold division of Anglo American in the earlier part of his career before moving into the world of mining finance for 17 years), Kisbey-Green has a special affinity for Kilimapesa (where he currently spends up to two weeks every month). “When I came on board at Goldplat, the mine had already been with the company for seven or eight years but had never turned a profit,” he says. “My assessment was that it had potential and could become a real asset.” The mine – which is Kenya’s only formal sector gold mine – is an underground opera- tion. “When I worked in the gold mines in South Africa, I was exposed to shrinkage min- ing – which is pretty much what we’re doing at Kilimapesa. It’s labour intensive but relatively straightforward,” he says. “We decided that the key to turning around the operation was to extend and modernise the treatment facilities and in FY 2016 we took the decision to expand processing capacity by putting in a new plant

a variety of reasons – sources of raw material within the country are continuing to deplete. Despite this we’re very optimistic about the company’s future as we are in the process of establishing it as an international recovery hub. Already, we are in talks with gold producers in Ghana’s neighbours in West Africa – countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. We’re also negotiating contracts with South American producers and, in fact, GRG secured its first recurring contract in FY 2017 for shipments of carbon and rubber mill liners.” He adds that GRG is looking at the possibil- ity of cleaning-up artisanal mining tailings in Ghana and says the company is in discussion with the Ghanaian government on the initiative. GRG is expanding its facilities. A complete modular second-hand 3-tonne elution plant was acquired from a producer in South Africa for R2 million and is now in the process of being shipped to Ghana. It is anticipated that it will be commissioned by year-end. In addi- tion, a third fluidised bed incinerator, which was purchased second-hand from an operator in Tanzania, is currently en-route to Ghana. Turning to the Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya, Kisbey-Green describes it as a very small, Zimbabwean-style operation. “It is located in the Migori greenstone belt in the south-west of the country – 80 km east of Lake Victoria and 20 km north of the border with Tanzania,” he states. “It has a total resource of

Plant 2 with Kilimapesa Hill in the background. The first stage of Plant 2

at Kilimapesa was officially opened in February this year.

24  MODERN MINING  October 2017