gold
27
07.13
The Mupane plant is a modern CIL facility with a capacity of 1,2 Mt/a of oxide ore and 1,0 Mt/a of sulphide ore.
seen some small-scale mining in the past – hosts some
10 km of strike of gold mineralisation, in three paral-
lel reefs, of which 830 m has been drilled in detail. A
maiden resource of 139 400 oz (including 93 000 oz
in the measured and indicated category) has been de-
clared for the property and an application for a min-
ing licence has been submitted to the Department of
Mines. Byron stresses that Jim’s Luck has excellent
potential for expansion, with the resource being open
at depth and along strike and with a newly discovered
parallel reef currently under investigation.
Other opportunities within the Tati Belt include
Tekwane, 11 km north of the processing plant, where
Galane is working on defining gold mineralisation oc-
curring in a flat-lying quartz rubble bed within the
soil profile, close to surface, and the Map Nora pros-
pect, just to the south of Francistown.
Pitting at Tekwane has produced very encourag-
ing results with around 120 pits carrying auriferous
quartz rubble of above 0,5 g/t gold. The quartz rubble
is free digging and could be mined at minimal cost.
While Tekwane would be a surface operation, Map
Nora – essentially the old Shashe mine – represents
an underground mining opportunity. Developing in-
frastructure for an underground mine is expensive
but Byron points out that much of the infrastructure
is already in place. “We have inherited a 340 m deep
shaft, as well as a headgear and winder, from the pre-
vious operator of the mine, all in reasonably good
condition, although some refurbishment would be
necessary,” he says. “The only real challenge at Map
Nora is the refractory nature of the ore. We’re look-
ing at a number of possibilities including bioleaching
technology which is now a mature technology and we
could either produce a concentrate and treat it on site
or toll treat it at a bioleach facility in South Africa.
We’re also conducting new metallurgical tests on new
ore samples, which will indicate the optimal options
that we might have including processing through our
existing plant.”
Byron believes there is a potential for 150 000
ounces of gold to a depth of 300 m at Map Nora –
with a potential for a further 200 000 ounces for every
additional 300 m of depth.
Apart from ‘virgin’ prospects such as Tekwane,
other resources available to Galane include 15 tail-
ings dumps scattered throughout the Tati Belt, all of
which have been sampled (via auger drilling) and
surveyed and eight of which are regarded as probably
economic. Comments Byron: “The biggest dump by
far is at Mupane itself, where we have just over 7 Mt
of material at a grade of 0,4 g/t. This resource was de-
clared in our latest mineral resource statement. The
other dumps are all of the order of 200 000 tonnes
with the average grade being around 1 g/t – which is
surprisingly high. We believe that ultrafine grinding
could be applicable to the dump material and we’re
currently looking at the results other mining compa-
nies are getting from this approach.”
At the Mupane site itself, Galane is looking at es-
tablishing an underground operation at the Tau pit,
where mining was discontinued after the open-pit
reserve was depleted in 2009. “We could conceiv-
ably do a cutback at Tau but it would involve a ca-
pex of around US$36 million and take 14 months to
complete,” says Condon. “That’s too expensive and
too long so we are looking at going underground via
a decline and in fact we’re about to start a feasibil-
ity study on the project, which we call Tau Deeps.”
He notes that recent drilling results by the previous
owners at Tau include a 53 m intersection averaging
4,55 g/t including 24 m at 6,57 g/t gold and 15 m at
5,86 g/t gold.
Looking ahead, Condon says that Galane would
like to eventually attain a 100 000 ounce a year level
of production – which he describes as the thresh-
old which, once achieved, attracts a broader share-
holder base. “We think we can certainly up our pro-
duction from the Tati Belt assets but it could be that
we will also need to acquire further assets,” he says.
“Given our expertise, we would probably be looking
at other greenstone belts. Zimbabwe is an obvious
destination based on the geology of its gold deposits
although there are concerns regarding its standing
as an investment destination. Whatever the case, we
are keeping an eye open for opportunities and it is
certainly possible that Galane might eventually be-
come a more diversified producer in the region than
it is at present.”
Photos: Galane Gold
