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Company Statement
On 26th April 2007 Mintails Limited (ASX : MLI) and DRDGOLD Limited (NASDAQ: DROOY; JSE: DRD) announced reaching an agreement on the formation of a joint venture company now called West Wits Mining Limited (West Wits) to explore, evaluate and potentially extract gold and uranium from the Company's Project Areas located on the West Rand Goldfield of South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin.
West Wits listed on the ASX through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the 19th December 2007 and raised A$15 million.
The Witwatersrand Basin is regarded as one of the largest mineralised gold and uranium systems in the world and is widely known for its rich, continuous multiple reef ore-bodies. The reefs contained within the Project Area include features such as outcropping reef, untested virgin sections of reef, reefs open at depth and remnant pillars within the historical workings. West Wits entered into a contract to acquire prospecting and mining rights from DRDGOLD Limited, Mintails Limited and Geotorm Investments Limited. These rights, held through subsidiaries, comprise the historical leases of Rand Leases, Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) Lease, East Champ D'Or Lease, Luipaardsvlei Lease, West Rand Consolidated Lease and West Wits Lease. These leases collectively produced 61.4 million ounces of gold and 37 million pounds of uranium over the past 120 years.
The Company's exploration program is investigating three types of exploration targets: near surface resource targets (less than 70m below surface) with open cut mining potential; unmined reefs with underground mining potential, particularly at shallow depths; and underground remnant pillar recovery potential remaining from historical mining activities.
The Company is initially focused on creating early cashflow from a number of its near surface gold targets which may be conducive to shallow opencut mining operations. Currently West Wits has four near surface targets which achieved an aggregate predominately inferred JORC resource of 468,000 ounces at 1.82 g/t. As the Company begins to develop these near surface targets, its exploration program will systematically progress to the Company’s more substantial underground targets.
West Wits has produced a conceptual exploration target for the Company’s lease portfolio of; 3.95-5.20 million ounces of gold, and 17-22 million pounds of uranium. West Wits has access to historical mining data, some of which dates back to initial activities in the region over 100 years ago. The Company continues to review this historical data which has led to a number of new targets being indentified. The Company has currently reviewed and scanned 19,000 maps and plans and continues to log these into a 3D model.
Current Operations
DRD Lease
The DRD Lease covers a surface area of approximately 34.2km2 and is located approximately 20km west of Johannesburg. The Lease is intersected by all reefs contained in the Central Rand Group, namely, the Main Reef, South Reef, Bird Reef, Kimberley Reef and Elsburg Reefs. However the initial focus within the DRD Lease will be on the gold and uranium mineralised reefs of the Bird and Kimberley Reef Groups, now known as the Raptor and Marquise Targets, respectively.
Raptor Target
The Bird Reef Group, predominately mineralised with uranium, was not mined at all on the DRD Lease, primarily due to the strategic focus of the previous lease owner, who embodied a specific focus on gold. This unmined reef provided for an excellent target, the Raptor Target.
The Company's initial exploration program for the Bird Reef Group was to test for near surface uranium mineralisation which may be conducive to open cut mining through a trenching and RC drilling program down to 70m. In addition, a deeper broadly spaced diamond drill hole program was designed to test the strike and depth potential for uranium mineralisation to a maximum 500 metres vertical depth.
Marquise Resource
The Marquise Target, which is focused on a 6km section of near surface mineralisation in the Kimberley Reef. The current Marquise Resource which sits along a 700m section of reef currently has a JORC inferred gold resource of 16,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.72g/t, down to an average depth of 65m.
The Company tested the Marquise Resource for near surface mineralisation with the view to taking advantage of any open cut mining opportunities. Whilst previous owners of the DRD mine have extensively mined the reef at depth, it is the West Wits belief there may be open cut opportunities closer to surface, above the old workings
Parallel Reef Targets
Commander Target
The Commander Target is focused on the Main, Main Reef Leader and South Reefs within the DRD Lease. These reefs were the most extensively mined reefs historically. As part of its deeper underground exploration strategy, West Wits will look to test existing mineralisation within parallel walls. It is the Company's belief significant mineralisation still exists between the Main and South Reefs and with improved mining technologies is potentially extractable, as demonstrated by Central Rand Gold Plc who are undertaking this production strategy on the leases immediately adjacent to the Company's Project Area.
Rand Leases
The historic Rand Lease Mine was originally opened in the early 1900's by Rand Leases (Vogelstruisfontein) Gold Mining Company Limited and has been responsible for producing 10.6m ounces of gold at average grade of 5.87 g/t since that time. Sitting immediately east of the DRD Lease, the Rand Lease is also intersected by all reefs contained in the Central Rand Group, namely, the Main Reef, South Reef, Bird Reef, Kimberley Reef and Elsburg Reefs. The Lease was mined at depth on all reefs with the Main Reef Leader and South Reefs proving to be the most productive and lucrative.
Radiant Resource
The Radiant Resource is viewed as a priority for its open cut and underground potential. The current JORC Inferred Gold Resource at Radiant is 271,000 ounces, at an average grade of 1.71g/t down to 300m. The Radiant Resource is a 1.3km section of unmined Kimberley Reef located on the eastern margin of Rand Leases. Further drilling is planned to delineate high grade zones within the reef.
The initial exploration plan for the Radiant Resource was to test any near surface mineralisation potentially conducive to open cut mining. However, through the Company's historical data review, it was determined that a 1.3km section of Kimberley Reef had remained unmined on the eastern margin of the lease.
East Champ D'Or Lease
The East Champ d'Or lease was historically mined for gold and uranium, with particular mining activities on the Bird Reef. A recorded production total of 1.33 million ounces of gold and 1.22 million pounds of uranium were achieved between the late 1890's to 1960's with minor gold mining activities in the 2003. The mine covers a surface area of approx 4.7km2 and is situated approximately 24km west of Johannesburg CBD. The mine is located on the western side of the Saxon/Witpoortjie fault separating the East Champ D'Or Mine, Luipaardsvlei, West Rand Consolidated Mine and the West Wits Mine from the DRD Mine and Rand Leases Mine.
Hawk Target
The Hawk Target is focused on a section of Bird Reef which intersects the East Champ d'Or Lease. West Wits has completed an initial 5 hole diamond program, designed to test near-surface uranium and gold mineralisation, within the Bird Reef Group, which may be conducive to open cut mining opportunities.
Results confirmed some gold and uranium mineralisation within the reef, however the Company does not expect to complete a follow up program at the target before the end of 2010. The Hawk Target has a near surface Conceptual Target of 25,000-32,000 ounces of gold.
Luipaarsdvlei Lease
The Luipaardsvlei Lease is located approx 27km west of Johannesburg CBD and is adjacent to the east of the East Champ D'Or Lease and to the west with the West Rand Consolidated Lease.
Princess Target
The Princess Target was a section of Kimberley Reef located on the Luipaardsvlei lease, which was the continuation of the section Kimberley Reef known as the Emerald Target located on the Company's adjacent West Rand Consolidated Lease. The Princess Target is approximately 2.2km in strike length
From two drill programs the Company was able to achieve a 20,000 ounce gold resource. Within this resource, 18,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.4g/t has been reported in the JORC Inferred category, with 2,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.50 g/t reported as Indicated.
West Rand Consolidated Lease
Emerald Gold Project - is focused on a section of Kimberley Reef within the West Rand Consolidated Lease. The Company anticipates being able to bring the Emerald Gold Project into production over first half of 2010. The Emerald Reserve is currently 59,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.71 g/t down to a vertical depth of 50m across a 1.5 km strike. The Emerald Gold Project also has 46,000 ozs in a JORC Measured Resource at 1.71 g/t down to 85m. In the first quarter of 2010 the Company will undertake a focused exploration program targeting 1km strike extensions to the south and east of the current Emerald Reserve.
West Wits Lease
The Company will be investigating the potential for shallow uranium and gold mineralisation with respect to the outcropping of the Livingstone, Main and South Reef Groups within this area. A staged exploration approach involving trenching will be undertaken and subject to those results a possible follow up drilling program would be planned with a view to identifying possible open cut opportunities.
Elder Target
Elder Target is focused on the Main, Main Reef Leader and South Reefs on both the West Wits Lease and West Rand Consolidated Lease. The exploration program will focus on high grade near surface mineralisation and will be undertaken in the March quarter 2010.
This target is hoped to provide further feedstock for the plant which has been secured by the Company to process ore for gold from its impending Emerald Gold Project. As the Elder Target lies approximately 1km from the plant site, the exploration team hopes to define further near high grade economic mineralisation which will add to the current 3 year production profile at the Emerald Gold Project
Geographical Spread
Board of Directors and Key Management
| Michael Quinert | Chairman |
| Grant Ferguson | Executive Director |
| Diederik van der Walt | Non-executive Director |
| Niel Pretorius | Non-executive Director |
Company AddressSuite 1, 1233 High Street
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CapitalShares On Issue 160,220,340 |
Year End30 June |
Nominated AdvisorsPeregrine Corporate Limited |
Major Shareholders
| DRD Gold Limited | 23.90% |
| Mintails Limited | 21.10% |
| AMN Nominees Pty Ltd | 4.90% |
| Geotorm Nominees Pty Ltd | 4.70% |
| Queensland Marketing Management | 4.10% |
| Directors and Staff | 0.01% |
Related News
23/12/09 - West Wits Is About To Assume Control Of Its Own Destiny With The Acquisition Of Plant From Mintails10/06/09 - West Wits Mining Closes In On Open-Cut Gold Production, And Is Now Turning Its Attention To Sizeable Targets Underground
31/12/08 - West Wits Moves To Within Sight Of First Gold Production
04/02/08 - West Wits Gold Sets Bold Strategy For West Rand Project
Most Recent Statement
18/01/10 - Assay Results from Elder Target confirms gold mineralisation21/12/09 - Appendix 3B - Release of Shares and Options from Escrow
07/12/09 - Release of Shares and Options from Escrow
07/12/09 - Change of Director`s Interest Notice x 3
27/11/09 - Gold Processing Heads Of Agreement Signed
11/11/09 - Company Update