9 / 64
July 2015
MODERN MINING
7
MINING News
Gold miner Golden Star Resources, which
has offices in Toronto and Accra, reports
that it has secured the necessary permits
to develop open-pit operations at its
Prestea mine in Ghana.
The surface deposits to the south of
the Prestea underground mine are host to
122 000 ounces of non-refractory mineral
reserves at an average grade of 2,24 g/t Au.
These surface operations are expected to
be in production by the end of 2015, a year
earlier than production from Prestea was
initially anticipated. Combined with the
redevelopment of underground opera-
tions, Prestea has the potential to deliver in
excess of five years of low cost production.
The environmental permit was issued
by the Ghanaian Environmental Protection
Agency after Golden Star undertook
extensive impact assessment studies and
local community consultations.
Prestea South has not been mined to
date and an investment in the haul road
will be required to bring the project into
production. The existing contractor’s fleet
at Bogoso will be used to haul this oxide
ore 16 km to the Bogoso non-refractory
plant where processing will take place.
Commenting on this development,
Sam Coetzer, President and CEO of Golden
Star, said: “The awarding of this permit
is welcome news and will enable us to
start exploiting the considerable poten-
tial of our Prestea concession. Developing
Prestea South is the first step towards our
corporate strategy of transitioning into a
higher margin non-refractory gold pro-
ducer. We expect to update stakeholders
with a new full year mine plan in the third
quarter of 2015.”
Golden Star gets ‘green light’ for open-pit mining at Prestea
Headgear of the Prestea underground mine in Ghana,
one of the oldest mines in the country. Golden Star is
planning an open-pit operation on the Prestea property
(photo: Golden Star).
RSV Group announces senior appointments
Consulting engineering and project man-
agement company Read Swatman & Voigt
(RSV) has announced the appointment of
Rein Koelmans
as its new Chief Executive
Officer (CEO). This is in addition to his exist-
ing appointment as CEO of RSV SA. He
succeeds
Hennie Read
, who was one of
the founders of RSV in 1991, who will now
concentrate on his portfolio as Executive
Chairman of the RSV Group companies.
Koelmans is a professional engineer
registered with the Engineering Council
of South Africa (ECSA) and has more than
30 years of experience within the mining
industry. His career in mining started in
1979 and he progressed to senior manage-
ment level during 1981, overseeing mining
operations and becoming GM of a large
chrome mining operation with Samancor,
BHP Billiton, for a period of six years. He also
spent a year in the Samancor head office as
Manager Strategic Projects.
He joined RSV as a Senior Mining
Consultant and has progressed from
Project Manager to Project Principal, Project
Director and currently COO for the Platinum
and Base Metals portfolio of projects.
During his time at RSV he has been
involved in numerous mine design projects,
project reviews, feasibility studies, study
reviews and Competent Persons Reports
and has managed the K4 project valued at
R2 billion.
RSV has also announced that
Derek
Naude
has been appointed as Technical
Director and
Debbie von Ahlefeldt
as
Finance Director.
Naude, a qualified mechanical engineer,
currently holds the position of COO for RSV
and head of Engineering & Technology. His
past positions have included being Design
Manager for the owner’s team on the South
Deep Twin Shaft project. At the completion
of this project in 2004, he joined RSV and
worked as the Engineering Cluster Manager
for the Impala No 16 Shaft project. In 2008 he
joined a prominent shaft-sinking company
heading up their design office as Manager
of Engineering in North Bay, Canada.
He returned to RSV’s Engineering and
Technology department in 2009 where
he has managed numerous key techni-
cal projects including the SBS project and
Resolution Copper. Ultimately, he was the
Project Principal for the three Oyu Tolgoi
shaft projects completed by RSV.
Von Ahlefeldt is a professional accoun-
tant with some 30 years of financial
experience. She has been with RSV for 16
years and is responsible for all the financial
departments within the RSV Group.