Modern Mining January 2015

MINING News

Goldplat to acquire dedicated elution capacity to redefine the relationship between the two companies for the longer term benefit of both. Initiatives taken by GPL as detailed above, as well as arrangements with other refineries with respect to certain materials, will allow the processing of the material currently not being processed at Rand Refinery. The effect is to increase the vol- ume of bullion bars supplied to the Rand Refinery for final processing.

According to Goldplat, GPL continues to perform satisfactorily on the back of the successful implementation of various initiatives made by the company during FY 2014. The upgrading of GPL’s rotary kilns to reduce electricity consumption and improve the quality of ash produced is progressing well and remains on target to be completed at the end of March 2015.  stone in the project’s development and a significant step in our medium-term goal of bringing this asset to book. “Following the recent granting of a mining right, Brakfontein only awaits the receipt of its water licence (IWULA) before proceeding to development. We will now focus our efforts on optimising the feasibil- ity study including investigating the case for utilising excess capacity at the nearby Kangala operation.” 

Goldplat plc, the AIM-listed African gold producer, has issued an operations update for its gold recovery businesses in South Africa and Ghana. In order to increase the value added to the Group’s products, the company has decided to increase its production in gold bullion and correspondingly reduce prod- uct sold in concentrate or other forms. To achieve this objective, the Group has entered into a toll-treatment agreement with a local mine in South Africa to acquire dedicated elution capacity. Under this arrangement, material from Goldplat Recovery (GPL) is being pro- cessed and material from Gold Recovery Ghana (GRG) will also be processed in the near future. The intention is for GPL to increase its in-house elution capacity and, to this end, it has purchased an elution plant to be re-erected and commissioned at the Benoni site, with a view to being operational towards the end of H1 2016. GPL is in discussions with Rand Refinery

Maiden resource announced for Brakfontein Universal Coal has announced a maiden JORC 2012 compliant coal reserve estimate of 9,62 Mt within the northern open pit areas of its Brakfontein project.

Brakfontein is located in the Delmas dis- trict, 25 m east of the company’s Kangala mine, and contains a total JORC compliant resource of 75,8 Mt. Commenting, Universal Coal’s CEO, Tony Weber, said, “The declaration of a maiden reserve represents the next important mile-

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