Chinaese firms showing interest in African precious metal:
miningweekly.co.za
China interest in Central Rand gold prospect
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A group representing Chinese mining interests is keen to examine and possibly resume gold-mining on the Central Rand, where research by the University of the Witwatersrand's Centre for Applied Mining and Exploration Geology (Cameg) has delineated a substantial gold resource.
It was on the Central Rand that the world's greatest goldfield was discovered in 1886 and, if current efforts come to fruition, mining will resume on the gold-bearing reef after a nearly 30-year hiatus.
Cameg reported in 2001 that a detailed evaluation undertaken for Innovative Property Developments (Iprop) had defined a remaining and potentially mineable multimillion-ounce gold resource in the area south of the M2 highway, which extends to Germiston in the east and Florida in the west.
This area contains the mining lease areas of the now defunct Consolidated Main Reef, City Deep and Crown Mines.
The Cameg study indicated that there was potential for opencast and underground mining.
Prof Morris Viljoen, of the University of the Witwatersrand's Geology Department, who undertook the research with his brother and colleague, Prof Richard Viljoen, and a team of research associates and students, says Cameg has been outlining the technical features of the Central Rand gold resource to interested parties on behalf of Iprop, which owns the mineral and surface rights to the area, measuring about 20 km by 2 km to 3 km.
Viljoen tells Mining Weekly that a number of companies are keen on examining the resource, with the interest from the Chinese being a recent development.
He adds that Dr Paul Jourdan, the president of mineral and metallurgical technology organisation Mintek, believes that the area has pontential as a possible site for developing small-scale mining opportunities for black economic empowerment companies.
Meanwhile, Viljoen says South African and Chinese geoscientists are collaborating on a project that could eventually lead to the exploitation of China's platinum-group metal (PGM) deposits.
The Viljoen brothers, Dr Yung Yao, of Wits Geosciences, and Prof Alan Wilson, of the Geology and Computer Science Department at the University of Natal, in Durban, represent the South African team.
The Chinese contingent includes experts from the Chinese Academy of Science, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics and the Sichuan Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.
A Chinese researcher, Dr Hong Zhong, is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his research is related to the PGM project, which is funded by South Africa's National Research Foundation, together with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science.
The project will be implemented over three years.
The South African academics spent two weeks in China in 2001, making presentations, visiting institutions and participating in field trips to PGM-containing mafic and ultramafic bodies in the region of Panzhihua, in Sichuan Province, south-east China.
"PGM deposits in China occur in a variety of environments, and have not been well investigated in the past," says Viljoen.
"Available data on PGM deposits illustrate that most are clustered in well-defined tectonic zones, such as the Panxi rift to the west and south-west of the city of Chengdu and to the west and north-west of the city of Kunning in the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, in south-east China." Viljoen says PGM mineralisation in these regions was not known until the 1980s, when a regional multi-element geochemical exploration programme was undertaken by the Sichuan Geological Bureau.
"It was not until recently, however, that investigations of their economic potential intensified, following the surge in the prices of PGMs," says Viljoen.
He adds that it has been evident from initial studies that the PGM-bearing complexes in the Panxi region share some common features, in mineralisation and metallurgy, with South Africa's Bushveld Complex, which contains most of the world's known PGM resources.
"The aim of the cooperative project is, consequently, to compare and contrast these features and provide models for ore geology and exploration.
"Valuable detailed geoscientific data as well as exploration data are currently being collected, synthetised and interpreted before being made available to interested mining companies in China and South Africa.
"In addition, a number of postgraduate students will be trained, and cooperation among geoscientists from both countries will be promoted."
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Martin Zhuwakinyu, Senior Staff Writer - email: newsdesk@engineeringnews.co.za. |
