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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers

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To: E. Charters who wrote (20775)	9/11/2006 10:29:37 PM
From: GoldBull no bug here	Read Replies (2) of 78416

a snip from Watson - were talking serious mining here - Ultra-deep mining. Here we are talking about mining to depths of up to twice the current record depth of over 3.5km at the Savuka and TauTona mines in South Africa. I will note right away that the energy requirements are great. Compared to a normal shaft mine scenario, the energy requirements for extra lifting, ventilation and cooling increased by 74% when the depth increased from 3km to 5km (see link). A solution based on hydropower and turbines was seen as the best approach to increased energy recovery and efficiency. I suspect their costing was not based on a scenario of increasingly higher energy prices and I for one always assume costs will come in higher than projections suggest. Furthermore, a rock lift of 13,150 tonnes per calendar day is required to make the operation profitable. Compare this to the mature deep mine at TauTona. In 2002, it mined 643,000 ounces of gold at a recovered grade of 0.34 oz/ton (see link), which equates to a daily rock lift of 5,181 tonnes. Clearly, this kind of energy intensive operation will be threatened by increasing energy costs.

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