Modern Mining August 2018

GOLD

The gold is extracted at a carbon-in-leach hybrid plant. As mentioned, the ETRP will be incorporated into Elikhulu in December 2018. With Elikhulu now completed, Pan Afri­ can’s next capital project is likely to be the Royal Sheba project at Barberton Mines. It has mandated DRA to undertake a life-of-mine technical feasibility study on the orebody which is expected to be completed during September this year. The project has the poten- tial to deliver approximately 30 000 oz of gold per annum and could provide more than 300 permanent employment opportunities. Loots said that, subject to a favourable feasibility study, Pan African would like to see Royal Sheba in steady-state production before the end of 2019. Also in the project pipeline is the Egoli project, an orebody adjacent to Evander’s No 7 shaft infrastructure, which has more than a million ounces of contained gold in the measured and indicated categories. If the project is implemented, it would use the established No 7 shaft and metallurgical facili- ties, which are approximately 3 km from the shaft infrastructure. 

cost effective and technically and operationally well understood. The low-cost, long-life Elikhulu project is expected to reduce the Group’s average all-in cost of production. Pan African Resources has a wealth of experience in owning and operating tailings retreatment plants. Its Barberton Tailings Retreatment Project (BTRP) at the Fairview mine at Barberton Mines is the result of suc- cessful metallurgical test work carried out on the Bramber tailings dam. Construction of the R326 million gold tailings retreatment plant started in April 2012. It was completed on schedule and within budget and achieved its inaugural gold pour in June 2013. It has the capacity to produce more than 20 000 ounces of gold per annum from a tailings throughput of 1,2 Mt/a. Pan African Resources’ Evander Tailings Retreatment Plant (ETRP) exploits histori- cally generated gold tailings deposited in the Kinross tailings storage facility and surface sources of gold-bearing material. It produces approximately 20 000 ounces of gold per annum from a tailings throughput of 2,4 Mt/a.

Aerial view of the Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment Plant during construction (photo: Pan African).

32  MODERN MINING  August 2018