Modern Mining August 2018

GOLD

Main photo: The Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment Plant. It will have a steady-state production of approxi- mately 55 000 oz/a of gold (photo: Arthur Tassell). Left: The first gold pour at Elikhulu (photo: Pan African).

Resources, to retreat historic gold plant tailings at a rate of 1 million tonnes per month. The definitive feasibility study on the project was undertaken by DRA Projects SA Proprietary Limited (DRA), which is the engineering, processing and construction contractor to the project. Three existing tailings storage facilities will be reclaimed, in the following order: Kinross, Leslie and Winkelhaak. The three tailing facili- ties will, after processing, be consolidated into a single enlarged Kinross facility, thus reducing Evander Mines’ environmental footprint and associated environmental impact. 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) tailings storage facilities at Evander Mines. 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 the mining method as it is a proven technology,

He also commended officials of the Department of Mineral Resources and the Department of Environmental Affairs for their “dedication and professionalism”, pointing out that Pan African had received all the critical permitting for the project within six months. The project’s commissioning phase is sched- uled to be completed in September 2018, with steady-state production of approximately 55 000 oz of gold per annum, at an all-in sus- taining production cost of between US$650/oz and US$700/oz. As previously announced by Pan African, the incorporation into Elikhulu of the Evander Tailings Retreatment Plant (ETRP), which has a tailings throughput of 200 000 tonnes per month, is on track and scheduled for comple- tion in December 2018, after which the enlarged Elikhulu plant is forecast to process 1,2 million tonnes per month of tailings for an annual gold production of approximately 70 000 oz. Elikhulu’s construction phase employed as many as 1 769 people and the facility will directly employ more than 350 permanent employees and contractors during its opera- tional life of 14 years. More than R162 million was paid as preferential procurement to com- munity contractors for services rendered during the construction phase. Construction of the Elikhulu project has entailed establishing facilities and infrastruc- ture at Evander Gold Mining (Proprietary) Limited, owned and operated by Pan African

The low-cost, long-life Elikhulu project is expected to reduce the Group’s average

all-in cost of production.

MODERN MINING  31

August 2018