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.
Property Geology
The geology consists of a basal felsic unit of no known mineralisation presence.
It is generally on this lithology type that the various tailings disposal sites are located. Above this unit are the ultramafics that include the banded iron formations hosting the eastern dormant cluster and the ore bodies of the nearby Vubachikwe complex. The active Blanket ore bodies are found in the next unit, the mafics.
An andesitic unit caps this whole stratigraphy. A regional dolerite sill cuts the entire sequence from Vubachikwe through Blanket to Smiler.
Ore bodies at Blanket are epigenetic. They are associated with a later, regionally developed deformation zone characterized by areas of high strain, wrapping around relatively undeformed remnants of the original basaltic flows. It is within the higher strain regime that the wider of the ore bodies are located.
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.
In March 2006, Caledonia concluded an agreement, with Falconbridge Ventures of Africa (Pty) Ltd (“Falconbridge”) to acquire a 100% interest in Falconbridge’s prospecting rights covering a total area of 4,315.81 hectares contiguous with the Company’s Rooipoort property and effectively doubles the area of Caledonia’s Rooipoort Project property underlain by Bushveld Complex rocks with PGM potential. The Falconbridge properties were granted New Order Prospecting Rights in April 2006 (3,099 hectares, for a period of 5 years) and September 2006 (1,217 hectares, for a period of 5 years). The total area of Caledonia’s New Order Prospecting Rights in the Rooipoort PGE/Ni/Cu properties is now 8,473.39 hectares.
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.
Stratigraphy:
The drilling to date has enabled compilation of a revised stratigraphic subdivision for the area containing five mineralised horizons.
Metallurgy:
A very preliminary composite of the five mineralised units on the property containing intersections above 0.5 g/t combined platinum/palladium/gold values was assembled for preliminary metallurgical test work. These composites were tested at the SGS Lakefield laboratory in Johannesburg to evaluate their metallurgical characteristics. A simple coarse grinding followed by standard Bushveld platinum flotation showed that platinum/palladium/gold/copper and nickel could be readily concentrated at a very low mass pull. Despite the low head grade of the composite mineralised units the concentrate grades produced were extremely encouraging.
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.
During 2006 metallurgical test work has provided a proposed metallurgical flow-sheet. Two further bulk samples were taken from Anomaly A to enhance and refine the metallurgical processes and cost parameters for producing a marketable and economically viable cobalt product.
Also in 2006/2007 a Technical Report, compliant with NI 43-101 was prepared for Anomaly A at Nama by Mr. David Grant, C.Geol., FGS, Pr.Sci.Nat., an independent consultant who is the “Independent Qualified Person” for Nama’s resources as required by National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators.