JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Many more "great" opportunities exist in South Africa for gold mine development, West Wits Mining chair Michael Quinert emphasised on March 17 when the first gold pour from his new virgin rock Qala Shallows gold mine took place at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Ezulwini gold processing plant.

Quinert said it was "fantastic" for a company of the stature of Sibanye-Stillwater to lay on a gold processing plant for West Wits.

Quinert was speaking to Mining Weekly in a video interview at Ezulwini. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

What’s more, Qala's relative 800-m shallowness also translates into lower costs.

“Who would have thought we'd find a seven-million-ounce resource, basically at surface. If we were in Australia, people would be doing back flips. So, we're very pleased to come here. We're really committed to the country, and we think there's a big future for South African mining.”

Qala is staffed overwhelmingly by South Africans and West Wits is considering a listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Mining Weekly: Qala means 'it’s just the beginning' and Shallows points to it being pretty shallow.

Quinert: That's what we're trying to broadcast because most people think of South African mining being deep, everything's called deep, but this is shallow. We're starting at level two. So, it means it's more straightforward. Our costs are better, and it shows there are some fantastic orebodies still here ready to be exploited.

So, what’ll you do next?

Well, we're looking to expand the project. You know, it's only the beginning. This is a 17-year life-of-mine producing a steady state 70 000 oz. But we think we can take this all the way to 200 000 oz. There's a massive resource there on the Jorc statement now, of seven-million ounces. It's all at good grades, so we've got to do the work and the feasibility on expanding it. But we think Qala is a great start.

Give us a bit of history of how this all came about.

I came here as a lawyer, of all things, in the early 2000s to work on some projects for some clients that ended up being the Ergo plant, which DRDGOLD are now owning. And it also ended up being some of the assets that Pan African are mining on the West Rand. This company, West Wits, was really a spin-off of some of the assets that came out of that project. I was asked, would I be chairman, and I said, yes, great, thinking that as chairman, I can sit around and do what I want, but no, it's been a lot of work, but it's been worthwhile. And here we are, after all this time now, pouring gold on this fantastic day on the West Rand.

The situation here at Ezulwini is quite impressive.

I think it's fantastic to be with a company of the stature of Sibanye-Stillwater and to take a small mining company like us on. We've had some great relationship building with them, and they're very keen to see the project work and we do believe that this can be a catalyst for starting overseas investment into South Africa to exploit these wonderful assets. Australian investors are going to West Africa, East Africa, places that have far less to offer in terms of stability, opportunity and resources and the people here, the skills you have here in South Africa. I mean, you basically run mining in all of Africa, so why not come here and use your skills locally and so we're looking forward to building that relationship with our South African friends. None of these things are down to one person. There's a huge team that sits behind what we've done, of consultants, but I can proudly say for you guys that there's only two Australians now in this whole company of over 250 people. They're all South Africans, and all our consultants, all our engineers, everyone's South African. So, while we're an Australian company to raise capital, we're very much a South Africa-focused company.

Finally, any chance of listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange?

It's on the cards. I'm meeting people, but that'll be news to come further. I'll give you the scoop when it happens.

PROJECT 200

Ezulwini, which means ‘in heaven’, has the capacity to process 130 000 t a month. ASX-listed West Wits has started a scoping study under its Project 200 initiative within the broader Witwatersrand Basin project (WBP). Project 200 is a strategic growth initiative aimed at assessing the potential to scale WBP toward an aspirational target of a 200 000 oz/y gold production.

Even at a steady-state production profile of 70 000 oz/y for 12 years, Qala is expected to contribute more than $1.15-billion to the South African economy over its 17-year life. That is set to grow significantly in line with the growth aspirations of West Wits.