JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Australia-listed gold mining company West Wits Mining, which is already on the way to contributing $1.15-billion-plus to the South African economy over the 17-year life of its maiden Qala Shallows gold mine near Johannesburg, has secured more gold mining permits, West Wits CEO Rudi Deysel reported during an interview at the site where Qala's first gold pour took place on March 17.

“We've got more mining applications out there and a few have already been approved. Our intention is to grow, and we've got a clear plan now about how we are going to grow. There are also near-term opportunities for us, which we’re looking at,” Deysel told Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Other interesting aspects that emerged during the interview were Qala's adoption of hydropower for drilling during stoping, which it finds to be cleaner, safer and more productive, as well as comment on the stockpile of Qala ore that is building up at Ezulwini. 

"Since our first blast in October, we’ve been building our stockpile here at the Ezulwini plant, which is part of the Sibanye-Stillwater group. We promised that our first gold pour would take place before the end of March and we’re able to celebrate the production of our first gold bar as promised, so these are excellent times for us.

"The Ezulwini plant is a top-quality plant and the engineering that we get here is excellent, so we’re very, very happy and we think that our partnership with Sibanye-Stillwater will be great," Deysel commented.

"The run-of-mine material that we provided is good quality material, and we’re already seeing that in the results, and that's exactly what the plant requires.

"To have that stability in the plant is great for the plant. It improves recoveries and the whole efficiency of the plant, so going forward, we intend to send an even greater volume of material than what we planned," Deysel added.

What are the benefits of not having to build your own smelt house?

A big benefit is not having to expend capital on the construction of a plant and also not having to provide management. Not having to run the plant removes a lot of project risk, so we’re very fortunate to have this relationship with Sibanye-Stillwater and be able to feed our material into this plant. So, excellent times.

How far is Ezulwini from your mine and how do you get your material across to it?

We’re about 40 km away, and we truck it, but along excellent roads, just on the N1 and along the golden highway, as it is called, so the hauling route is excellent. We've done it now for a while, and we see that it's a very easy process with no issues.

How's mining going at Qala? You’re mining virgin rock there at a relatively shallow 800 m.

The mining’s going excellently, I must admit. The team is doing a great job. A big effort is being put into our safety, the quality of material that we need, and also the standard of workmanship. We’re proud of what we’re building there, and you can see it in the standard of the underground workings as well. We've already opened up our first stopes and as we open up more, the production profile grows to that 70 000 oz of gold per month or 65 000 t per month. Once we hit that point, we’ll supply 80% of the ore that's fed into the Ezulwini plant here.

Tell us about your mining method.

We've got a normal, conventional breast mining method that we use in the stoping site, but we do all our development trackless or in a mechanised way. Also, we only use hydropower for stoping. We’re not using compressed air at all. Hydropower is much cleaner. It's much better from a power point of view. It's also safer and then from a productivity point of view, penetration rates are so much higher than using normal pneumatic drills. So, we try new technology and we’re moving forward, and that will help us to ensure that we get out those required tons.

QALA DEPTH EXTENSION

Qala’s latest compliant mineral resource estimate of 7.24-million ounces at a grade of 4 g/t gold includes a depth extension to the existing mining footprint.