High grades had been intersected at Gamsberg Zinc in the Northern
Cape, Anglo American plc CEO Tony Trahar has told Mining
Weekly.
In elaboration, Anglo Base CEO Simon Thompson said the incidence of
high grades discovered in the past month had caused the company to
go back and reinterpret the geology.
Thompson disclosed that the company currently had several drilling
rigs on site in order to work on that interpretation. “Until
we get a full sense of whore ore crushing machines miningat the implications of these intersections
are, we cannot say much more,” he said, in answer to a
question from Mining Weekly.
He said that interpretation was stillconstruction waste crusher 2 at a preliminary stage and
the company would be keeping abreast of developments.
Gamsberg Zinc, a long-standing base-metals hope, had been in line
for approval in the 1990s, along wstone crusher supplier in germanyith the smaller $454-million
Skorpion Zinc, in Namibia, which Trahar held up as a model at the
recent presentation of results that saw Anglo’s record
earnings before interest and tax rise 47% to $2,5-billion and Anglo
Base take centre stage. The bigger Gamsberg prospect was, at the
time, seen as riskier than the smaller but richer Skorpion and put
on the backburner.
However, when the Kumba black economic-empowerment unbundling took
place last year, Gamsberg was offered as a sweetener to the
incipient Exxaro, made up of Kumba remnants and the black-owned
Eyesizwe. With the zinc price flying high – and with strong
global demand extending the commodities cycle –Gamsberg was
once again flashed up as part of Anglo’s future project
portfolio.
Trahar stressed, however, that unapproved projects had to meet the
company’s hurdle-rate requirements in a rigorous evaluation
pro-cess. “It is always a temptation in boom times to ramp up
projects and approve more projects and I think we must resist that
temptation. “We have to go through the normal evaluation
process and make sure that these are going to be good long-term
projects,” he insisted.
South America continued to domi-nate Anglo Base’s attention.