Ferdi sure knows how to get free press from Mining Weekly.... Lots of GBN articles there ever since he came on board...
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Great Basin added to Amex gold index
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Gold development company Great Basin Gold, which is pursuing projects in South Africa and North America, has been added to the Gold Miner's Index (GDM) on the American Stock Exchange (Amex), the company announced recently.
The GDM is a modified market capitalisation-weighted index comprised of the common stocks, or American Depository Receipt of publicly-traded companies involved primarily in gold- and silver-mining.
A recent report detailed that the GDM was up 4,3% in August and up 23% over the first eight months of 2006, the emailed statement said.
“Great Basin is making good progress with the development of both of our projects and remains focused on becoming a midtier gold producer,” president and CEO Ferdi Diepenaar said.
“We are pleased that our efforts are being recognised, and we are also pleased to be part of the Amex DDM.”
The company has two advanced-stage gold projects, namely the Hollister property on the Carlin Trend of Nevada, in the US, and the Burnstone project in the Witwatersrand goldfields of South Africa.
Great Basin recently initiated underground development at its Burnstone project.
A decline was being developed to enable early access for mining and extraction of confirmatory bulk sample, and to provide continuous access for personnel and equipment during production.
Later, a vertical shaft would be developed and commissioned to be used for hoisting ore and waste rock to the surface.
Commercial production was expected to start in 2009.
At the Hollister Development Block project, part of Great Basin's Hollister property, a two-stage underground exploration and development programme was under way.
This was designed to take the project through feasibility and into commercial production.
Hecla Mining Company was operating the underground exploration and development programme under an agreement where it would receive 50% of the project.
The programme included some 5 600 ft of decline and underground development, 50 000 ft of underground drilling, which was 30% complete, and mining of some 5 000 t of bulk sample, as well as site engineering, environmental and socioeconomic studies.
The feasibility programme was scheduled for completion by the end of the first quarter of 2007.
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Published: 2006/09/26 Printer
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Another foreign miner gets set for secondary JSE listing
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Canadian miner Great Basin Gold plans to start trading on the JSE next month, after the South African Reserve Bank approved the gold-development company's secondary listing.
The company, which initially aimed for a listing in July but postponed it to mid-August and later September, attracted a renewed interest from local investors since it announced the results of the Burnstone feasibility report, CEO Ferdi Dippenaar said on Tuesday.
In May, Great Basin announced the results of its Burnstone feasibility report, which indicated that the underground mine had the potential for robust returns and said that it had planned to use flexible, mechanised materials-handling and conventional narrow-reef mining, in combination with a decline and a vertical shaft for access.
Earlier this month, the company started the construction of the decline to develop the R1-billion gold deposit.
The Burnstone project is located on the South Rand area of the Witwatersrand Basin and is being developed on portions of 34 farms near Balfour.
“By listing on the JSE, we will be offering South African investors exposure to both our development projects in South Africa as well as our high-grade gold and silver deposit in Nevada, US. When in production, both are expected to be shallow, low cash-cost operations,” he said.
Earlier, legal and compliance vice president Willie Beckman told Mining Weekly that the JSE listing would provide for a funding mechanism through which the company could structure and fund opportunities in Burnstone and thereby facilitate growth.
He stressed, however, that the listing would not include an invitation to subscribe for shares in Great Basin, adding that it would only be an introduction of the company into the gold-mining sector of the JSE.
Mining Weekly also reported earlier that Dippenaar believed that the secondary listing would, ultimately, add liquidity to the company, whose TSX and Amex shares were attracting renewed investor interest. The company would retain its TSX and Amex listing after listing on the JSE.
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Published: 2006/09/26 Printer
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