Modern Mining December 2018

MINING News

Azumah starts on A$4 million drill programme

West African gold explorer and developer Azumah Resources, listed on the ASX, has commenced a 40 000 m, A$4 million multi-target drilling campaign aimed at lifting mineral resources and ore reserves at its Wa gold project in Ghana, where the primary objective is to deliver an eco- nomically attractive, development-ready project by Q3 2019. “We have a multitude of stand-out tar- gets across our vast and highly prospective Wa gold project tenure that we are con- fident will deliver increases in mineral resources and ore reserves,” commented Azumah MD Stephen Stone. “Our exploration strategy has been developed by renowned orogenic gold specialist, Dr Jon Hronsky, who is a found- ing partner of our joint venture partner, Ibaera Capital, which is sole-funding and managing the 40 000 m drilling campaign.” Paul L’Herpiniere, who is also a founding partner of andGeneral Partner – Exploration and Evaluation at Ibaera Capital, said: “The entire team is eager to commence what will be an exciting exploration campaign at the Wa gold project, following on the back of last season’s increase in mineral resources

to 2,5 Moz which was largely achieved through focused drilling at previously defined prospects. “A particular focus for us this season is to evaluate the depth extent of mineralisa-

tion at our flagship Kunche, Bepkong and Julie deposits, as that could provide us with the option of adding underground production to the life-of-mine develop- ment strategy.” 

A previous phase of drilling at the Wa gold project in Ghana (photo: Azumah Resources).

NewWits professor an expert in rock mechanics With a long career in rock mechanics research, operations, consult- ing and academia, Professor Bryan Watson has been appointed associate professor in the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. Professor Watson has been an adjunct professor at the School since July 2016, and brings extensive experience in mining research and development, mining operations, numerical modelling, instru- mentation and laboratory testing. Among his qualifications is a PhD from Wits University, a work which was voted the world’s second best doctoral thesis on rock engineering in 2011. In that year, he also won the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) silver medal award for an outstanding publication, and the Salamon award for best rock engineering paper in South Africa from the South African National Institute of Rock Engineers (SANIRE). A winner of the innovators award from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor Watson has researched and written prolifically on rock mechanics – with 18 major research reports, 13 journal publications and 14 conference papers. He began his career with Anglo American Prospecting Services in Vereeniging as a field officer, moving on to become an assis- tant rock mechanics officer in Witbank for Amcoal Research and Development. He then worked for the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation (COMRO) – later CSIR Miningtek – where his focus moved to the geomechanical testing of hard rock, and also the monitoring of rock mass behaviour around shallow and inter­

mediate depth platinum mines. As senior researcher at CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment, Professor Watson then spent almost five years on proposing and lead- ing multi-million Rand projects in diverse disciplines such as numerical modelling, geology, instrumentation and rock mass rating systems; the unit also implemented and managed underground instrumentation programmes.

Professor Bryan Watson.

He was chief rock engineer at Gold Fields’Driefontein gold mine in Carletonville, going on to become unit manager rock engineer- ing at the company’s South Deep gold mine inWestonaria – where he managed the rock engineering and seismic departments and designed and implemented newmine layouts, monitoring systems and appropriate support requirements. Professor Watson has been an external consultant to global engineers and scientists SRK Consulting since 2016, and holds professional membership of the South African National Institute of Rock Engineers (SANIRE), the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), and the North American Rock Mechanics Society. 

December 2018  MODERN MINING  11