| New Kleinfontein & Turnbridge |
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The dormant New Kleinfontein and Turnbridge gold mines are situated near the town of Boksburg on the East Rand. Gold was first discovered at New Kleinfontein in 1894 and gold mining began at the New Kleinfontein Gold Mine in 1897. It is estimated that, at the closure of the mine in 1967, approximately 298,000kg (9.5Moz) of gold had been recovered from 45.7Mt of ore, principally from the Main Reef.
The Main Reef in the project area has well defined payshoots oriented northwest-southeast. These features are interpreted to result from channelized flow within a braided alluvial fan system. The channel thickness varies from a single pebble layer to up to three metres in width. The conglomerate is typically well sorted, and comprised mainly of quartz pebbles. New Kleinfontein is located in the proximal portion of the major payshoot, while Turnbridge straddles the margin of the payshoot to the south, and extends further south into a more distal environment. In 1999, an attempt was made to re-open the New Kleinfontein Gold Mine. Following rehabilitation of the shaft infrastructure, small scale scattered underground mining began on the Main Reef, with a monthly production of approximately 2,500 tonnes from five shafts. The ore was initially treated via a toll agreement with Grootvlei Gold Mine, an adjacent mining operation. In June 2002, a metallurgical plant was constructed at New Kleinfontein Gold Mine, with a capacity of 2,500 tonnes per month. Due to various operational problems and high unit production costs arising from the low throughput of ore in the plant, the operation failed to achieve profitability and operations at New Kleinfontein and the Turnbridge property were placed on care and maintenance in May 2003. The New Kleinfontein property currently contains an audited Inferred resource base of 2.5 million tonnes grading 6.9 g/t for a total of 549,000 ounces of gold. The Turnbridge property currently contains an audited Inferred resource base of 1.8 million tonnes grading 4.8 g/t for a total of 280,000 ounces of gold. Both the New Kleinfontein and Turnbridge resource estimates have been calculated using a 300 cmg/t cut-off grade. Exploration activities are underway at the two properties with the aim of upgrading the bulk of the resource to the indicated category. Prospecting at New Kleinfontein will involve surface mapping of the lease area, the re-drilling (twinning) of five short (50m) holes that were drilled previously, and the evaluation of remnant blocks. An underground mapping and sampling program is being planned for Turnbridge. |