In its constant drive to bolster its portfolio and remain a relevant miner in Africa, midtier gold producer Pan African Resources (PAR) continues to implement and develop its exploration portfolio throughout Africa, says investor relations head Hethen Hira.

“We are constantly looking at new opportunities and are assessing each one on its own merits,” he says, adding that the Arabian-Nubian shield, in north-east Africa, has displayed great geological potential.

The shield is a relatively unexplored territory, mainly as a result of the adverse political climate in some of the countries that host the geological anomaly.

“However, if managed carefully, one can operate through these disruptive periods, as is currently the case with our projects in Sudan,” he adds.

Hira highlights that Sudan has the potential to, once again, be one of the largest gold-producing regions in Africa.

Importantly, PAR has other opportunities on its radar that can be advanced, should these projects not meet the company’s specific investment criteria.

PAR has developed “stringent criteria for new investments”, and while unforeseen circumstances always carry a risk, the company’s “first and foremost priority” is to ensure the safety of its personnel, he explains.

Exploring the Options

Hira says PAR constantly assesses the optimal use and application of its existing exploration technologies and methodologies.

“One such technology is the interpretation and re-interpretation of LANDSAT 8/9 OLI Level 1 and Level 2 images.”

Some of these re-interpretations include different colour band ratio compositing, as has been identified from PAR’s Block 12 exploration project in Sudan.

This technique has been used successfully to identify and highlight different geological alteration signatures, which can be used to target on-the-ground exploration activities.

Further, quadcopter drones are used to capture high-resolution aerial photographs and thermal imagery, which PAR uses for mineralisation interpretation and structural mapping.

“The thermal imagery is also employed at our tailings storage facilities to monitor and manage the water content for safety reasons,” adds Hira.

PAR has also implemented deep-level, long-inclined drilling techniques, known as LIB drilling, underground at the lower levels of its Evander gold mine in Mpumalanga.

These techniques entail using and modelling the natural tendency of a borehole to deflect from its starting point to intercept and derisk the ore that is targeted for mining in the medium term.

“PAR employs these techniques as and when required to optimise its exploration strategy and derisk exploration capital expenditure,” he enthuses.

This includes feeding historic paper-based data, accumulated over many years of mining, into an electronic database to enable PAR’s modern software packages to assist in interpreting the acquired data and orebody modelling.

Although most of the technologies used by PAR are not new, they have been improved to be more precise and reliable.

Hira adds that the company also focuses on the continued optimisation and enhancement of its exploration toolkit, building on it to gain as much information as possible.

Going Forward

PAR is currently anticipating the commissioning of its newly developed Mogale Tailings Retreatment plant, on the West Rand of Johannesburg, which will reduce the group’s overall costs and increase its yearly production by about 25%, consequently taking it closer to its 250 000 oz/y target.

“This operation will have a 21-year life and will improve the sustainability of the area by infilling historically mined areas and rehabilitating the footprints of the old tailings storage facilities.”

Hira adds that, a

s a primary gold producer, PAR will continue to focus on new gold opportunities; however, where there is a valuable by-product, such as copper, which has good long- term fundamentals, “we will certainly investigate its potential”.