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Central Rand Gold
Mechanised mining and a year of de-risking
Following a happy year-long accord with Central Rand Gold (the gold prospector and miner operating in the Central Rand Goldfield of South Africa), IRJ has one word that could characterise the company’s activity—that word is “de-risking.”
They are a pioneering bunch, and this past year have gone about introducing mechanised mining to the locale. The trial-mining is complete, expert contractors are on hand, and the verdict is in: this mining method works well for the type of projects the company has here.
“We really have de-risked the project from an exploration kind of conceptual thing to proving that with this mining method we really can mine effectively and safely in the Central Basin,” Johan du Toit, Central Rand’s CEO, says. “There’s really the three phases: We’ve gone through trial mining and tested the concept now it’s implementation and moving into production.”
But, and it’s a big ‘but,’ this has been an undeniably tricky year for all of us in the wake of the global financial crisis, and surely this has had some impact on the company? In short, it did—in that intentions to raise funding were put on hold after a look at the credit market rendered them unviable.
“Last year was a very challenging year for us, as it was for many companies,” du Toit agrees. “In 2009, we really went out to prove concept; prove that the methods we have designed are viable, economical, safe and efficient for the area that we’ve got.”
The trial-mining phase
According to du Toit, much of Central Rand’s focus has been on physical trial-mining, which culminated in the first Competent Persons Report and first reserve conversion in August 2009. “Our first reserve conversion was around 270,000 ounces and we’re very happy with that, it was a big milestone for us in 2009,” he says.
“We went on further in the remainder of 2009, with our focus underground; getting and testing our underground mining from March until the end of February 2010. We did our first retrials, our first scoping and or first blasts and we’re very, very comfortable with the results of that trial mining.”
In March 2010, Central Rand issued its updated Competent Persons Report on the mining methodology and again Snowden, the mining industry consultants group, verified that it was safe and effective. “We were able to increase our reserve base by about 79 per cent to 482,000 ounces in the area that’s been designated to mine,” du Toit says.
“For quarter one we’ve really achieved what we set out to; test concept, make sure it’s safe, efficient and effective mining method and that there was a business case and it was economical. We were able to do that and happily so. Although it was tough in 2009, we were able to reposition the company and get it set up for what I believe to be long-term success.”
Of course, in doing this and firming up its use of mechanised mining in the Central Basin, the company has not only proved the method is applicable to this project, but highlighted its use for the region and enabled future focus tenement areas to benefit from its attendance.
Mechanised mining philosophy
The old mines of the Central Rand Goldfield of South Africa were closed some time ago in the 1970’s and as such, mechanised mining never made it through the door.
“South Africa doesn’t really have a very strong history of mechanised mining, it’s more on the labour side,” du Toit says. “We realised going into the old gold mines and old stopes that from a safety point of view, we could not put people into the old stopes. The only method that we could use to safely and effectively mine this area was mechanisation.”
Central Rand sought out Australian contract miners who are specialists in mechanised mining and have experience in similar-type geology. They joined in back in August 2009, and du Toit says they have been they’ve a great asset to the company in getting the philosophy of mechanisation right.
“Mechanisation isn’t just about buying a couple of machines and making it run, it’s really a whole mindset,” du Toit explains.
“The whole philosophy is what makes mechanisation effective and ACM have the advantage on our side because we’re only starting up. We can set up that methodology from the start rather than taking something that’s been there for years and having to change mindset. “
Phase three: de-risked and ready
As Central Rand embarks upon the third and final stage to prep for production, du Toit says that the company has announced it is seeking to raise funds in the next couple of months.
“Now that we’ve proven trial mining and that it’s viable we’re going out to our shareholders to seek more funds, which hopefully we will conclude by the end f the first half of this year,” he says. “Then really the focus area for us is getting our first mining area—CMR West—operational and into production. That will really be our focus for the next six months, getting that operational side of things moving forward. Then getting to a stage in 2013 around about the 45,000 ounce level.”
Company-wise, Central Rand will also be looking at its other tenement areas currently under mining license, including CMR East and Crown. CMR East offers existing infrastructure and equipment benefits.
“That’s a very interesting target for us and we’ll be spending the next six months to sure it up a bit, and get the planning around that sorted. This is so that we can really start to look at it as a target within the next months, and start that target area,” du Toit says. “Crown is also a very interesting target. It will require new infrastructure and new equipment, so we need to do a little bit of drilling just to sure-up the resources there, but a very interesting target.”
This is where the applicability of mechanised mining is set in motion for the future projects Central Rand may move to. “I think one of the things which we’re really excited about is that the mining method we’ve devised and got signed off from Snowden, we’re very confident that this method can be copy-pasted into the new area,” du Toit says.
“We don’t have to go through an R&D exercise to validate the mining method. We can really go ahead and probably 90 per cent of this method can be applied, so the implementation plan can be fairly aggressive.”
It all makes sense; the year spent de-risking and proving how mechanised mining suits CMR will facilitate its move over to those future projects.
“Our focus is to move across our tenement areas building similar types of mines as we have at CMR, to make sure we utilise our tenement areas as effectively as possible,” du Toit says. It’s been a cautious yet successful year for Central Rand Gold. Their operations are proven and ready to go, and the company is moving swiftly into the financing phase. With its project de-risking complete, an unfaltering vision of where to go next and an expert team involved, things continue to look promising for the company.
www.demo.crg-sa.com
Following a happy year-long accord with Central Rand Gold (the gold prospector and miner operating in the Central Rand Goldfield of South Africa), IRJ has one word that could characterise the company’s activity—that word is “de-risking.”
They are a pioneering bunch, and this past year have gone about introducing mechanised mining to the locale. The trial-mining is complete, expert contractors are on hand, and the verdict is in: this mining method works well for the type of projects the company has here.
“We really have de-risked the project from an exploration kind of conceptual thing to proving that with this mining method we really can mine effectively and safely in the Central Basin,” Johan du Toit, Central Rand’s CEO, says. “There’s really the three phases: We’ve gone through trial mining and tested the concept now it’s implementation and moving into production.”
But, and it’s a big ‘but,’ this has been an undeniably tricky year for all of us in the wake of the global financial crisis, and surely this has had some impact on the company? In short, it did—in that intentions to raise funding were put on hold after a look at the credit market rendered them unviable.
“Last year was a very challenging year for us, as it was for many companies,” du Toit agrees. “In 2009, we really went out to prove concept; prove that the methods we have designed are viable, economical, safe and efficient for the area that we’ve got.”
The trial-mining phase
According to du Toit, much of Central Rand’s focus has been on physical trial-mining, which culminated in the first Competent Persons Report and first reserve conversion in August 2009. “Our first reserve conversion was around 270,000 ounces and we’re very happy with that, it was a big milestone for us in 2009,” he says.
“We went on further in the remainder of 2009, with our focus underground; getting and testing our underground mining from March until the end of February 2010. We did our first retrials, our first scoping and or first blasts and we’re very, very comfortable with the results of that trial mining.”
In March 2010, Central Rand issued its updated Competent Persons Report on the mining methodology and again Snowden, the mining industry consultants group, verified that it was safe and effective. “We were able to increase our reserve base by about 79 per cent to 482,000 ounces in the area that’s been designated to mine,” du Toit says.
“For quarter one we’ve really achieved what we set out to; test concept, make sure it’s safe, efficient and effective mining method and that there was a business case and it was economical. We were able to do that and happily so. Although it was tough in 2009, we were able to reposition the company and get it set up for what I believe to be long-term success.”
Of course, in doing this and firming up its use of mechanised mining in the Central Basin, the company has not only proved the method is applicable to this project, but highlighted its use for the region and enabled future focus tenement areas to benefit from its attendance.
Mechanised mining philosophy
The old mines of the Central Rand Goldfield of South Africa were closed some time ago in the 1970’s and as such, mechanised mining never made it through the door.
“South Africa doesn’t really have a very strong history of mechanised mining, it’s more on the labour side,” du Toit says. “We realised going into the old gold mines and old stopes that from a safety point of view, we could not put people into the old stopes. The only method that we could use to safely and effectively mine this area was mechanisation.”
Central Rand sought out Australian contract miners who are specialists in mechanised mining and have experience in similar-type geology. They joined in back in August 2009, and du Toit says they have been they’ve a great asset to the company in getting the philosophy of mechanisation right.
“Mechanisation isn’t just about buying a couple of machines and making it run, it’s really a whole mindset,” du Toit explains.
“The whole philosophy is what makes mechanisation effective and ACM have the advantage on our side because we’re only starting up. We can set up that methodology from the start rather than taking something that’s been there for years and having to change mindset. “
Phase three: de-risked and ready
As Central Rand embarks upon the third and final stage to prep for production, du Toit says that the company has announced it is seeking to raise funds in the next couple of months.
“Now that we’ve proven trial mining and that it’s viable we’re going out to our shareholders to seek more funds, which hopefully we will conclude by the end f the first half of this year,” he says. “Then really the focus area for us is getting our first mining area—CMR West—operational and into production. That will really be our focus for the next six months, getting that operational side of things moving forward. Then getting to a stage in 2013 around about the 45,000 ounce level.”
Company-wise, Central Rand will also be looking at its other tenement areas currently under mining license, including CMR East and Crown. CMR East offers existing infrastructure and equipment benefits.
“That’s a very interesting target for us and we’ll be spending the next six months to sure it up a bit, and get the planning around that sorted. This is so that we can really start to look at it as a target within the next months, and start that target area,” du Toit says. “Crown is also a very interesting target. It will require new infrastructure and new equipment, so we need to do a little bit of drilling just to sure-up the resources there, but a very interesting target.”
This is where the applicability of mechanised mining is set in motion for the future projects Central Rand may move to. “I think one of the things which we’re really excited about is that the mining method we’ve devised and got signed off from Snowden, we’re very confident that this method can be copy-pasted into the new area,” du Toit says.
“We don’t have to go through an R&D exercise to validate the mining method. We can really go ahead and probably 90 per cent of this method can be applied, so the implementation plan can be fairly aggressive.”
It all makes sense; the year spent de-risking and proving how mechanised mining suits CMR will facilitate its move over to those future projects.
“Our focus is to move across our tenement areas building similar types of mines as we have at CMR, to make sure we utilise our tenement areas as effectively as possible,” du Toit says. It’s been a cautious yet successful year for Central Rand Gold. Their operations are proven and ready to go, and the company is moving swiftly into the financing phase. With its project de-risking complete, an unfaltering vision of where to go next and an expert team involved, things continue to look promising for the company.
www.demo.crg-sa.com
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