GOLD
shareholders in the short-term, as Blanket will
suspend dividend payments until early 2016.
Explaining the rationale for the Revised
Plan, Caledonia says that its board and man-
agement recently completed a review of
alternative expansion plans for the company
and concluded that the best returns on invest-
ment remain at the Blanket mine in Zimbabwe,
which continues to be cash generative in the
current adverse market conditions and also
offers significant investment returns that
exceed alternative investment opportunities.
In essence, the Revised Plan addresses the
problem that reserves above the 750 m Level at
Blanket are steadily being depleted. With the
mines existing infrastructure and only existing
investment, Blanket can maintain 1 200 tonnes
per day (tpd) from existing reserves for another
three years, after which production would
rapidly tail off with tonnes milled reducing
from 430 000 in 2015 to just 50 000 in 2021
and gold production declining over the same
period from roughly 40 000 ounces a year to
just 6 000 ounces a year.
The new Central Shaft will provide access
to the current inferred mineral resources below
750 m and allow for further exploration, devel-
opment and mining in these sections along the
known Blanket strike, which is approximately
3km in length. As a result, tonnages milled from
the resources below 750 m zero at the moment
will steadily increase from a projected 35000
tonnes in 2016 to 600 000 tonnes in 2021,
resulting in gold production rising to between
70000 and 75 000 ounces a year. In addition,
the mine will continue to produce from the cur-
rent proven and probable reserves above 750 m
level although, as mentioned above, this will This cross-section through
only amount to 6 000 ounces in 2021. Blanket shows the main
elements of the expansion.
The sinking of the Central Shaft will be
No6 winze allows early
undertaken between August 2015 and July access to the Blanket zone
2017 but rapid access to resources below 750m below 750 m while the
Level will be facilitated in the meantime by Tramming Loop allows L22
extending the No 6 winze from 630 m to 870 m. handling of waste arising
from the sinking of the
Ore production will start in January 2016 with
Central Shaft from 630 m.
a ramp-up to 500 tpd by mid-2017. Blanket will The 3 000 t/d Central Shaft
resume sinking from 870 m after completion of provides access to 26 and
the Central Shaft. 30 Levels in two directions
The Revised Plan, which will be the largest and creates opportunity
for improved operational
investment undertaken by either the Blanket
efficiency and resource
mine or Caledonia, will be implemented under development below 750 m.
the direction of Dana Roets, Caledonias Chief Larger 3 x 3 m haulages on
Operating Officer, who developed the plan and 26 and 30 Levels will allow
scope of work and has considerable experience high-speed, high volume
access to all mining areas.
of successfully implementing similar projects.
Roets will work closely with Caxton Mangezi,
Blankets General Manager.
Roets has over 20 years of deep level mining
experience, most of which was at Gold Fields,
where he gained experience in sinking large
shafts. Whilst at Gold Fields from 1994 to 2004,
Roets successfully implemented the approxi-
mately US$850 million Oryx project which
comprised sinking production and ventilation
shafts from surface to 2 400 m below surface
and building up production to approximately
500 000 ounces of gold. Roets also success-
fully managed the sinking of the 1 200 m deep
Beatrix No 3 Shaft.
For his part, Mangezi has over 40 years of
experience at the Blanket mine where he has
been responsible for sinking several shafts.
Most recently he was responsible for the No
4 Shaft expansion project which involved
November 2014MODERN MINING27