Great Basin Gold Ltd. (fka GBGLF)

[goldenpolarbear]

Burnstone is located in the South Rand Goldfield of the Witwatersrand Basin near the town of Balfour, approximately 75km east of Johannesburg in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa.

Sibanye acquired the Burnstone assets in April 2014. These comprise:

two shaft complexes
surface portal and mechanised vehicle access decline and vertical shaft (shaft bottom at 495m below surface)
125,000tpm gold processing plant
tailings storage facility
infrastructure of a producing operation
Burnstone had previously produced approximately 38koz of gold before being placed on care and maintenance in mid-2012.

The Burnstone project feasibility study was approved by the Sibanye Board for project execution in November 2015. The project is planned with eight years’ steady-state production, averaging 125koz per annum, from an initial 23-year life-of-mine plan, yielding 1.73Moz of gold production from the feasibility resource of 5.7Moz. This is approximately 60% of the total Burnstone resource of 8.9Moz. The mine design and schedule in the feasibility study were limited to the mineable reserves within a 3km radius of the shaft infrastructure.

Extensive development will begin in 2016 with first gold production due in the second half of 2018 when there is sufficient on-reef development stockpiled to start up the metallurgical plant, albeit at a reduced milling capacity. The full production run rate is planned to be achieved in 2021 and the total life-of-mine project capital is estimated at R1,852 million (in 2015 terms).

In 2015, R272 million was spent on completing the mine-dewatering and permanent pumping infrastructure, re-aligning the shaft steelwork for rock-hoisting, and completing approximately 2km of development to access the ore body. The development was completed utilising the existing mechanised development machines which were first refurbished before being put back into production. Three development fleets of equipment were in production by year end.

The project budget of R705 million for 2016 was approved based on the first year of the feasibility study build-up, with this budget providing for:

the procurement of an additional three mechanised mining fleets and ancillary support vehicles
the development to access the ore body running costs of mine infrastructure and additional project capital infrastructure With the additional equipment being delivered and commissioned from March to July, the six development suites are planned to be at steady-state development rate by the fourth quarter which will deliver the 2017 plan of 8,380 metres. Approximately 4,500 metres of primary off-reef development is planned in 2016 to access the various mining blocks as well as 1,200 metres on-reef development in preparation for the first raise lines in 2017.

https://www.sibanyegold.co.za/our-business/projects/burnstone

I wonder how BlackRock, MacKenzie Financial, VanGuard, Credit Suisse, RBC Bank and Standard Bank to name just a few ....?