Pan African strikes it rich at Consort Gold Mine
In the last two years, Pan African Resources (PAR) has increased its efforts in active gold exploration at the New Consort Mine, near Barberton, Mpumalanga, while continuing to mine successfully, finding high grade areas predicted from its advanced geological models.
The South African company has struck it ‘lucky’, with the discovery of one particularly rich zone within the existing gold-bearing ore body, containing Mineral Reserves of 5,000 tonnes, at an average grade of 25g/t delineated.
This is comparable to the famous historic Golden Quarry (at Sheba Mine) noted to have produced 5Koz of gold from 13,000 tonnes of ore (equating to an average grade of 12g/t). Currently, the New Consort Mine produces approximately 12Koz of gold per year.
HIGH VALUES OF GOLD IN GRAMS PER TONNE (G/t)
G/t is the universal measure of the concentration of a precious metal found in an ore deposit and measured on a scale of gold in grams per tonne. Certain ore samples show grades over 300g/t. This is significant because on average, native gold ore grades vary between 8 and 10g/t at Barberton, and much lower on average anywhere else in the world.
The PAR discovery is an exceptionally high-grade orebody. This makes the discovery more impressive at a time where the gold price now is consistently in excess of a million rand per kilogram of gold.
Dollar projections put it at over $2,000/oz soon, with certain commentators predicting even higher prices based on world macro-economic scenarios of negative interest rates, low inflation and monetary stimulus.
It’s even more opportune for the fortunes of PAR, as its miners were finally able to access the gold deposits in May 2020, after the government eased COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The key strategy for pushing exploration was lowering costs and safely driving production increases.
The main projected execution is the 42 Level Prince Consort (PC) Shaft Project. People should see the New Consort Gold Mine as a business extension of the Barberton Mines and other mining activities in the PAR Group operations.
INVESTING IN A SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD MINE
Pan African Resources continues to prove its value as a viable investment option and profitable producer of gold, with historically, high-yields at Barberton, and a producer focused in South Africa with an exciting pipeline of long-life organic growth opportunities, including the Egoli Project at Evander. The New Consort Mine discovery joins the Groups’ other innovative mining operations at the Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment Plant and Evander Mines, in Mpumalanga; as well as the Fairview and Sheba Mines in Barberton.
The Barberton Greenstone Belt is well known for its gold mineralisation and ultramafic igneous rock formations, which are some of the oldest and best preserved rocks in the world and of international significance. It is important to note that gold was discovered in Barberton even before the Witwatersrand Goldfield in Johannesburg, and Barberton also had the country’s first ever stock exchange!
Current Mineral Reserves at the New Consort Mine estimate an 8-year remaining Life of Mine (LoM). To extend this LoM, over 30 exploration targets were identified between 2017 and 2019. Systematic diamond drilling of these targets takes place at scheduled intervals to further understand the orebodies and geological models to prioritise future targets.
The Group projects New Consort Mine’s monthly production increasing from an average of 20kg to 26.38kg smelted in June 2020, to further increase in 2021. PAR commits to exploring additional deposit types to increase the New Consort operation’s LoM and continue with Barberton’s legacy of mining that commenced over 130 years ago.
