Deep mining
posted on
Mar 21, 2011 08:09PM
Keep in mind, the opinions on this site are for the most part speculation and are not necessarily the opinions of the company WITHOUT PREJUDICE
I find this interesring where they speak about the depth and how they think they will be able to go deeper in years to come because of technology. As you see, I couldn,t get the full article, because I am not subscribed. Nevertheless, it seems indicative of easy resource(near surface) may be coming harder to find. This in effect should put a higher premium on new finds near the surface. They might as well mine 1g/t stuff at the surface through open pits as mine 8g/t 3000m below in mine shafts because of the economics. At todays gold prices, and if we can define a resource of 1 g/t at or near surface, we will undoubtedly be open pit. Its also possible who ever gets the Tesoro, may want to extend the existing shallow mine shafts to access the high grade gold to compensate the open pit.
All jokes aside, and this was mentioned here before, that we could mine this ourselves. It really wouldn,t cost that much to upgrade the existing facilities and get new equipment in. We could probably be mining in a couple months providing permits could be obtain quickly. The rainy season is from dec - may, the other months ore could be trucked to Dynacor across the river. I dont know if Dynacor could handle a 300t/p/d high grade stuff, but it seems they are expanding. I don,t beleive there would be much trouble getting financing to start up the operation. It would provide lots of employment for the locals and the Peruvian government would look favourably on this. The downside of this scenario and what I dont like about it, is the time frame to get return on our investment. I rather the Tesoro sold to a miner quickly, so that we can move on. I guess I just threw this out there again to show that there is unlocked value in the Tesoro in more than 1 way, more options.
Heres the article:
March 21, 2011
By Charles Wyatt
When Wits Gold had its beginnings, the big South African gold producers were under pressure from their government to ‘use it or lose it‘. Harmony, as well as Anglogold Ashanti and Gold Fields all had gold resources at these deep levels which were not due to be mined for many a year, and certainly not at that gold price, so it suited them to do a deal with Wits Gold whereby they sold ‘old order’ mineral rights, had them converted into ‘new order’ rights and retained the right to acquire a 40 per...