Company Information for Caledonia Mining Corp

Company stock charts - 6 Month chart
View full financial data | View full financial data |
View full financial data |
Company Statement
Canadian registered Caledonia is a mining, and exploration company with assets in Southern Africa. The Company's current focus is its producing Blanket gold mine in Zimbabwe, the Rooipoort and Mapochsgronde platinum-nickel exploration projects in South Africa and the Nama cobalt-copper exploration project in Zambia.
The Blanket gold mine re-started production in April 2009 after a temporary suspension of activities in October 2008 due to the lack of foreign exchange in Zimbabwe. Blanket is currently ramping- up production to its current capacity of 24,000 ounces of gold per annum and is also completing an expansion project to increase annual production to 40,000 ounces of gold per annum.
The Rooipoort platinum-nickel exploration project is located on the northern limb of the Bushveld complex, about 300kms north of Johannesburg. The Mapochsgronde platinum group metal exploration project is located on the eastern limb of the Bushveld complex, about 175km north-east of Johannesburg.
The Nama Project is an advanced cobalt-copper exploration project in north-west Zambia. Caledonia has 4 mining licences covering approximately 860 square km. Exploration continues with a view to identifying an oxide resource of sufficient size and grade to support the large scale production of cobalt hydroxide.
Caledonia has a strong, experienced management team and Board of Directors with diverse expertise in gold production, exploration, mine development, finance and marketing.
Current Operations
Blanket Gold Mine
Background
Located in the south-west of Zimbabwe Blanket Mine is wholly owned and operated by Caledonia, having been acquired from Kinross Gold Corporation in June 2006. The mine is 560 kms from Harare, the capital city and 150 kms from Bulawayo, the country's second largest city. The provincial capital of Matabeleland South, Gwanda town is 16 kms from the mine.
Mining Operations
The underground workings can produce 600 tonnes of ore per day using a long-hole open stoping or underhand stoping methods. Ore is trammed to a number of shafts and hoisted to surface. The No. 4 Shaft Expansion Project (refer below) will increase overall hoisting capacity at the mine to over 1,000 tonnes per day which, in conjunction with other modifications to the above-ground processing, will increase Blanket’s production capacity from 24,000 oz per annum to approximately 40,000 oz per annum.
Metallurgical Process
Run of mine ore is crushed to less than 12mm in the 3 stage crushing plant. This material is then fed into two 1.8m by 3.6m rod mills where it is milled down to approximately 70% passing 75 microns, before being passed through two 30 inch Knelson Concentrators where approximately 49% of total gold production is recovered. The Knelson Concentrator tails are pumped through cyclones and into a 3.66 meter by 4.9 meter, 1000 HP regrind ball mill. The product from the regrind mill is pumped into a carbon in leach ("CIL") plant consisting of eight, 600 cubic meter leach tanks equipped with 45kw agitators where leaching at 50% solids and simultaneous solubilised-gold adsorption onto activated carbon takes place. Elution of the gold from the loaded carbon and its electro winning is done on site.
Rooipoort Platinum Project
(including Grasvally) -PGE/Ni/Cu
Property
In 2002, Caledonia acquired the Rooipoort PGE/Ni/Cu Project from Anglo Platinum Limited. The property is in an area that is presently undergoing a surge in platinum group elements ("PGE") exploration along a well-mineralized feature known as the "Platreef". An additional 342 hectares on the farm Grasvally, immediately adjacent to and south of the Rooipoort property was optioned in 2004 and granted a New Order Prospecting Right in May 2005 (3 year period), with a further 43 hectares portion granted in April 2006 (5 year period). Application for conversion of the Rooipoort property into a new order right in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Development Act ("MPRDA") was granted in November 2006.
Exploration:
To date, Caledonia has drilled a total of 18,450 meters in 54 holes on the Rooipoort PGE/Ni/Cu Exploration Project. This drilling covers the full 6 km strike length that makes up the project area.
Falconbridge has drilled a total of 7,393 meters in 22 holes on the portions of Grasvally and the farms Jaagbaan and Moordrift that comprise most of the property purchased from Falconbridge.
Nama Cobalt Property
Nama Group of Licences - Zambia
Caledonia Nama Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caledonia, holds four contiguous Large Scale Mining Licences, which cover an area of 806 square kilometres on the northern extension of the Zambian Copperbelt and host open-pittable near-surface low grade cobalt /copper mineralization.
This area lies immediately north-west of the operating Konkola Copper mine and adjoins the extensive holdings of what was formerly Teal Mining and Exploration Limited (now a joint venture between African Rainbow Minerals and Vale).
Work Completed:
The 2001/2002 soil sampling program carried out jointly by Caledonia and BHP Billiton was completed over the majority of the original licence areas. This program identified a number of high priority anomalous targets within the required geological setting. These targets have been followed up in the search for copper/cobalt oxide and sulphide bodies. The top priority targets established by follow up drilling in 1996/7 were determined to be anomalies A, C, and D.
In the second quarter of 2004, a mini bulk sample of 30 tonnes was excavated at Nama A (Discovery) site and underwent successful screening tests and heavy media/gravity separation tests in South Africa. Following encouraging results, further one-tonne samples were sent for additional test work to fine tune the extraction process for the cobalt oxide.
Geographical Spread
Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa
Board of Directors and Key Management
| Directors | |
| G. Rupert Pardoe | Chairman |
| Stefan E. Hayden | President and Chief Executive Officer |
| Steve Curtis | Vice President Finance, Chief Financial Officer |
| Carl R. Jonsson | Director and Company Secretary |
| James Johnstone | Director |
| Christopher Harvey | Director |
| Robert Babensee | Non-executive Director |
| Management | |
| Stefan E. Hayden | President and Chief Executive Officer |
| Steve Curtis | Vice President Finance, Chief Financial Officer |
| Dr. Trevor Pearton | Vice President, Exploration |
| Mark Learmonth | Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations |
| Caxton Mangezi | General Manager and Director, Blanket Mine |
Company AddressSuite 1201
|
Additional Address/Key ContactCorporate Offices |
CapitalAuthorised: Unlimited
|
Annual General MeetingToronto, Canada | Year End31 December |
Nominated BrokersRBC Capital Markets | Nominated AdvisorsRBC Capital Markets |
Related News
30/11/09 - Caledonia’s Blanket Mine In Zimbabwe Should Be Producing 40,000 Ounces Of Gold Per Year By This Time Next Year08/04/09 - Caledonia Mining’s Blanket Gold Mine In Zimbabwe Will Be Back In Production Imminently
29/10/08 - Caledonia Mining Suspends Operations At Blanket And Is Now Waiting On The Zambian Election Before Proceeding On Nama
10/09/08 - Caledonia Struggles On At Blanket, But New Money Is Rightly Earmarked For Nama In Zambia
02/09/08 - The MDC Goes Into Battle In Parliament On The Indigenization Law, As Mining Companies In Zimbabwe Hold Their Breath
06/02/08 - Caledonia Mining Shares Take Off After Chinese Off-take Agreement
Most Recent Statement
01/02/10 - Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Defaults on Bond Repayment to Caledonia Mining21/12/09 - Caledonia Mining Secures a Renewed Zimbabwe Gold Dealership License
12/11/09 - Caledonia Mining Announces Third Quarter 2009 Results
09/11/09 - Blanket Mine Awarded Exporter of the Year
08/10/09 - Presentation by Caledonia Mining at the Nedgroup Securities Institutional Investor Conference,
04/09/09 - Caledonia reduces exercise price of outstanding options

