gold
23
07.13
Assets at Map Nora include a headgear and winder, as well as a
340 m deep shaft.
The Mupane gold plant seen from the air.
plant is centrally located within the belt so most pros-
pects are within a 30 km radius of the facility.”
He adds that an opportunity has been identified
to increase the tonnage capacity of the plant from a
nominal 140 t/h to 160 t/h (depending on ore type
and grinding index) through the addition of a second-
ary crushing circuit. The capital cost is estimated at
US$3,5 million and Galane is currently reviewing the
optimum time to implement the expansion.
During 2012, Galane mined 906 000 tonnes of ore
and milled 1 084 thousand tonnes at an average head
grade of 1,70 g/t, with the plant delivering a recov-
ery rate of 83 %. The total operating cash cost was
US$1 027 per ounce (excluding royalties) and the
net earnings after tax amounted to US$17,4 million.
Condon acknowledges that the cash cost per ounce
is high – he attributes it largely to a stripping ratio
of nearly 15 to 1 over the year – but says that mining
and operating costs on a dollar per tonne basis com-
pare favourably with Galane’s peers within the gold
mining industry. He also points out that with a major
accelerated cutback at Tholo now complete, Mupane
will see better grades and a lower stripping ratio in
the year ahead.
In a further development, Galane, which has been
doing about a third of its mining in house, has opted
to totally outsource this function. “We believe that
moving to 100 % contract mining will ultimately in-
troduce a new level of efficiency to the mining opera-
tion,” he says.
Condon, an Australian professional engineer with
26 years of experience in mining (including a stint
as CEO of the National Mining Company of Oman),
stresses that Galane is highly committed to Botswana
and that its employee complement is overwhelmingly
composed of Batswana. “We only have approximately
