A group representing Chinese mining interests is keen to examine
and possibly resume gold-mining on the Central Rand, where research
by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Applied Mining
and Exploration Geology (Cameg) has delineated a substantial gold
resource.
It was on the Central Rand that the world’s greatest goldfield was
discovered in 1886 and, if current efforts come to fruition, mining
will resume on the gold-bearing reef after a nearly 30-year
hiatus.
Cameg reported in 2001 that a detailed evaluation undertaken for
Innovative Property Developments (Iprop) had defined a remaining
and potentially mineable multimillion-ounce gold resource in the
area south of the M2 highway, which extends to Germiston in the
east and Florida in the west.
This area contains thjharkhand iron ore mine owners associatione mining lease areas of the now defunct
Consolidated Main Reef, City Deep and Crown Mines.
The Cameg study indicated that there was potential for opencast and
underground mining.
Prof Morris Viljoen, of the University of the Witwatersrand’s
Geology Department, who undertook the research with his brother and
colleague, Prof Richard Viljoen, and a team of research associates
and students, says Cameg has been outlining the technical features
of the Central Rand gold resourcjupiter stone flour grain mille to interested parties on behalf
of Iprop, which owns the mineral and surface rights to the area,
measuring about 20 km by 2 km to 3 km.
Viljoen tells Mining Weekly that a number of companies are keen on
examining the resource, with the interest from the Chinese being a
recent development.
He adds that Dr Paul Jourdan, the president of mineral and
metallurgical technology organisation Mintek, believes that the
area has pontential as a possible site for developing small-scale
mining opportunitiescopper mining equipment india for black economic empowerment
companies.
Meanwhile, Viljoen says South African and Chinese geoscientists are
collaborating on a project that could eventually lead to the
exploitation of China’s platinum-group metal (PGM) deposits.
The Viljoen brothers, Dr Yung Yao, of Wits Geosciences, and Prof
Alan Wilson, of the Geology and Computer Science Department at the
University of Natal, in Durban, represent the South African
team.
The Chinese contingent includes experts from the Chinese Academobile concrete crushing in victoria australiamy of
Science, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics and the Sichuan
Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.
A Chinese researcher, Dr Hong Zhong, is currently a post-doctoral
research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his
research is related to the PGM project, which is funded by South
Africa’s National Research Foundation, together with the Chinese
Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of
Science.
The project will be implemented over trock crushers for rent californiahree years.
The South African academics spent two weeks in China in 2001,
making presentations, visiting institutions and participating in
field trips to PGM-containing mafic and ultramafic bodies in the
region of Panzhihua, in Sichuan Province, south-east China.
„PGM deposits in China occur in a variety of environments, and have
not been well investigated in the past,“ says Viljoen.
„Available data on PGM deposits illustrate that most are clustered
in well-defined tectonic zones, such as the Panxi rift to the west
and south-west of the city of Chengdu and to the west and
north-west of the city of Kunning in the provinces of Sichuan and
Yunnan, in south-east China.“ Viljoen says PGM mineralisation in
these regions was not known until the 1980s, when a regional
multi-element geochemical exploration programme was undertaken by
the Sichuan Geological Bureau.
„It was not until recently, however, that investigations of their
economic potential intensified, following the surge in the prices
of PGMs,“ says Viljoen.
He adds that it has been evident from initial studies that the
PGM-bearing complexes in the Panxi region share some common
features, in mineralisation and metallurgy, with South Africa’s
Bushveld Complex, which contains most of the world’s known PGM
resources.
„The aim of the cooperative project is, consequently, to compare
and contrast these features and provide models for ore geology and
exploration.
„Valuable detailed geoscientific data as well as exploration data
are currently being collected, synthetised and interpreted before
being made available to interested mining companies in China and
South Africa.
„In addition, a number of postgraduate students will be trained,
and cooperation among geoscientists from both countries will be
promoted.“