Modern Mining September 2017

GOLD

annum for the initial eight years of production (while treating the Kinross and Leslie tailings storage facilities), and then approximately 45 000 ounces a year for the project’s remain- ing six years from processing the Winkelhaak tailings storage facility. The project will create more than 700 jobs during construction and approximately 250 direct permanent jobs once the plant is in production. The mineral reserve estimate is a probable 185,3 Mt, comprised of the Kinross (45,2 Mt), Leslie (70,1 Mt) and Winkelhaak (70 Mt) tail- ings storage facilities at Evander Mines. The combined 185,3 Mt will provide feed material to the existing Evander Tailings Retreatment Plant (ETRP) at 200 000 tonnes per month, and to the new project process plant at a rate of 1 Mt per month (of which 40 000 tonnes per month will be from run-of-mine tailings). The combined mineral reserve contains an estimated 1,7 million ounces, of which an esti- mated 688 000 ounces will be recovered over the life of the project. This estimate excludes the inferred resource of 244 398 ounces of gold leached and contained in the soil beneath the existing tailing dumps, which could potentially increase the project life. The mineral reserve estimate assumes a non- selective mining method whereby the whole of the mineral deposit is mined in a predeter- mined sequence. The mining method allows for complete extraction of the targeted mineral deposit. Hydraulic mining has been selected as

(Proprietary) Limited (Evander Mines), owned and operated by Pan African Resources, to retreat historic gold plant tailings at a rate of 1 Mt per month. The Evander gold field, the most easterly of the gold fields of the Witwatersrand system, has been producing gold since the late 1950s when Union Corporation commissioned the Winkelhaak mine. This was the first of several mines developed in the area to exploit primar- ily the Kimberley Reef (the Main Reef being absent in the Evander Basin). These mines were later amalgamated into what is now known as Evander Mines. The definitive feasibility study on the Elikhulu project was undertaken by DRA Projects, which has been appointed as the engineering, processing and construction con- tractors to the project on a ‘target price’ basis. This contracting arrangement is based on a shared risk/reward philosophy and will see the project being essentially executed on a cost plus basis with a variable DRA Projects fee capped at 4 % of the project value. Three existing tailings storage facilities will be reclaimed, in the following order: Kinross, Leslie and Winkelhaak. The three tailings facil- ities will, after processing, be consolidated into a single enlarged Kinross facility, thus reducing Evander Mines’ environmental footprint and associated environmental impact. According to key highlights from the defini- tive feasibility study, the project is expected to yield approximately 56 000 ounces of gold per

An aerial view of the Elikhulu site, where construction is now underway.

September 2017  MODERN MINING  31