How Deep Can the South African Platinum Mines Go ?

It was widely believed that due to differing geothermal gradients, the maximum depth that the South African platinum mines would ever extend to could be up to 1600m or 1700m below surface, compared to the gold mines extending to depths of 4km or so. However, that platinum depth limit gradually crept closer to surface to a perceived ~1200m to 1300m.

Africa’s Artisanal Miners targeted to triple to 15million in the next 10 years

This was a forecast made in one of the last papers at the Indaba Conference in Cape Town on 9 February 2006, on Artisanal (Scale) Mining or ASM by Kevin D’Souza. ASM has been defined as the most primitive form of mining characterised by groups or individuals exploiting deposits – often illegally with the simplest equipment.

Perceptions and Reality

By Friday 9 June 2006, the resources stocks had taken a major fall with some stock prices down by up to 40% since the peak around 12 May and the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index down by 30%, as the gold price dropped by 19% from US$726/oz down to US$608/oz. The fall was based on the perception that the market had run too high with commodity prices driven mainly by hedge fund speculation and share prices by almost all forms of trading. Hence the perception was that demand had to fall because such commodity prices were perceived to be unsustainable and consequently the prices similarly should fall, which they have to some degree.

Is bioxidation the only acceptable way to treat refractory gold ores ?

Refractory gold from a western viewpoint usually means where the gold is associated with arsenic, whereas its more general definition (at least in China) is any ore that is not free-milling. This hence includes by-product gold being produced with other base or precious metals, or when gold is associated with pyrite and floated to produce a concentrate that is leached as shown in Figure 1 of the concentrates waiting to be processed at Michelago’s (becoming Golden China’s) BioGold plant in China’s Shandong Province.

Did WMC sell one of the jewels in its crown ?

It is well known that the sale of WMC’s Kambalda nickel division (encompassing the Kambalda and Widgiemooltha regions, Lanfranchi and Carnilya) has been very lucrative for WMC (now BHPB’s Nickel West). However, with the market caps of the small companies operating those mines now totalling ~A$1bn (and rising), a spate of new and ongoing discoveries by them and reputed problems in the Nickel West’s remaining nickel division, did WMC in fact sell the jewel in its nickel crown ?

The Commissioning Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost

During the coming 3 to 4 months to the end of February 2007, a number of gold companies are going to experience the commissioning phase of their plants, hopefully much better than those that have gone before them so far during 2006.