JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A feasibility study on the Soweto Cluster gold recovery project, which like the highly successful Mogale Tailings Retreatment (MTR) is also on Gauteng’s West Rand, will be completed by September, midtier gold mining company Pan African reported on Thursday, December 12.

"The performance of our MTR operation has exceeded expectations,” Pan African CEO Cobus Loots stated in the stock exchange news service announcement, in which he also expressed excitement at the prospect of further expanding the Johannesburg- and London-listed company’s surface business in the short term for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Like MTR, the Soweto Cluster is less than an hour’s drive from Pan African’s corporate office in Rosebank and the feasibility study for it is following hot on the heels of the nearby budget-beating and schedule-outstripping MTR. (Also read Creamer Media’s multi-page Top Project of 2024 MTR feature in the December 13 edition of the Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine, now in bookstores.)

Interestingly, 122 ha of environmental rehabilitation at MTR has already been completed, with historical spillage cleaned up, derelict pipeline removed, alien vegetation eradicated and wetlands remediated.

When Mining Weekly was on site earlier this year, of the 1 600 people at work, 1 040 of them were locals.

Now, the Soweto Cluster appears to be a surface resource that could well eventuate as a repeat of what has happened at MTR and add another 50 000 oz/y to overall Pan African gold production, which is on its way to being a 16%-higher 215 000 oz in financial year (FY) 2025.

The feasibility study under way is focusing on the option of constructing a new standalone processing facility closer to the cluster’s tailings storage facilities (TSFs) as well as putting the spotlight on a second option of including additional proximal TSF resources to increase the life-of-mine (LoM).

“By March 2025, we’ll also be largely unhedged, and at prevailing gold prices, the cashflow generation from our long-life portfolio of quality assets should allow for rapid de-gearing and flexibility in deploying capital on value-accretive growth and further sector-leading dividends to shareholders,” Loots pointed out.

Production being guided for FY2026, excluding the now wholly owned Tennant Consolidated Mining Group operation in Australia, is a further increase to between 235 000 oz and 250 000 oz.

Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment Plant production is on track to total 52 000 oz or more for the full financial year, following phases 3 and 4 of the new tailings dam construction being completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

Barberton Tailings Retreatment Plant is on track for half-year production of between 7 000 oz and 8 000 oz amid the operation’s LoM rising by a further six-and-a-half years.

MTR is forecast to produce 33 000 oz in FY2025 with studies underway to increase annual production from 50 000 oz to about 60 000 oz in the next year through the installation of additional reactors to further improve recoveries, the addition of two carbon-in-leach tanks to increase throughput from 800 000 t a month to a million tons a month at a capital cost of R70-million.

In addition, a prefeasibility study on the inclusion of a hard rock crushing circuit enabling the processing of nearby remnant hard rock sources is scheduled to be concluded in the next three months.

UNDERGROUND OPERATIONS

At Evander Mines, the sub-vertical hoisting shaft commissioning will be completed during December, enabling its daily hoisting capacity of 700 t to be achieved, underground production ramp-up delays from 24 Level to 25 Level operations at 8 Shaft have been resolved, and FY2025 production of 38 000 oz is expected. The third-quarter FY2025 establishment of the 24 Level B-Line raise will further improve face length and mining flexibility, and the average grade is expected to improve from 6 g/t to 7.5 g/t.

At the Egoli project, long-inclined borehole reserve delineation drilling at 19 Level to further define the ore payshoot is underway.

At Barberton Mines, spare power transformers are to be kept on site to counteract ageing infrastructure at the Fairview and Sheba operations. High-grade areas of the 262 platform at Fairview, indicated by drill intersections of up to 80 g/t of gold, are anticipated to be accessed by the third quarter of FY2025 as development rates are accelerated. Underground sampling at Consort has confirmed high-grade mineral reserve areas below 41 Level in the Prince Consort shaft area. Largely completed rehabilitation work on the shaft has allowed operations to recommence. Half-year production of 32 000 oz is expected, with full-year production of 73 000 oz, excluding the tailings retreatment contribution.

SOLAR POWER AND WATER SAVING

Pan African is a first-mover renewable-energy generator. It was the first mining company to commission a utility-scale renewables plant at Evander, which was followed by the establishment of a large renewables plant at Barberton.

Barberton Mines' 8.75 MWAC Fairview solar plant, which reached full capacity during October 2024, produced 1.1 GWh, equivalent to an emissions reduction of 1 000 t of CO2e, resulting in initial cost savings of R36-million a year.

Under consideration is a potentially 20 MW renewables plant at MTR.

Regarding water saving, Evander Mines’ three-million-litre-a-day underground water recycling plant has resulted in municipal water cost savings of R8.8-million since operations commenced in November 2023. Approved now is the doubling of this capacity to six-million litres a day during 2026.