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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (33996)	3/12/2009 11:03:13 AM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193231

ERPM flooding has a silver lining Ines Schumacher Posted: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 miningmx.com [miningmx.com] -- DRDGOLD’s water problems at its ERPM mine and subsequent flooding of the Central Basin is fortuitous for Central Rand Gold (CRG), an aspiring 1 million ounce gold producer. The flooding of the Central Basin has formed an alliance between DRDGOLD, CRG and West Wits Mining, a joint venture company between Mintails and DRDGOLD. The three miners are sharing the costs in building an underground pumping station in ERPM. CRG is mining old worked-out areas immediately to the south of Johannesburg city in the Central Basin of the Witwatersrand gold field. The defunct workings are all linked by old tunnels, making the area susceptible to water problems, which pose a threat to CRG to reach a stated production target of one million oz of gold annually from 2012. CRG plans to produce 100,000 oz this year. DRDGOLD, a junior South African gold producer, has shut its century-old ERPM underground mining operation because of the high cost of R115m and the time it would take to resolve the water problems. Water from this mine threatens to flood old mines in the area, including those owned by CRG. The costs involved in neutralising this threat have come a little earlier than CRG anticipated, but it's not an unwelcome development. “This was always on the horizon for us. Sooner or later we would have to mine underneath the water level and installed our own pumps,” CRG executive manager Wayne Epstein told Miningmx. He said it was cheaper for CRG to participate in the partnership than take the cost on itself a few years down the line. The three companies have formed the Central Basin Environmental Corporation (CBEC), which is emulating an equivalent partnership in the Western Basin. Together with Harmony Gold and Mintails, DRDGOLD participates in the Western Basin Environmental Corporation (WBEC), formed to find solutions to the acid mine drainage from the Western Basin of the Witwatersrand, which seeps into rivers and dams in the Randfontein area. WBEC entered into an agreement with Western Utilities Corporation to evaluate treatment options for the water. These pilot plants were constructed at the end of 2007 and a bankable feasibility is currently being undertaken for the establishment of a full-scale treatment plant. A plugging programme, involving the construction of water barrier plugs, was started at ERPM some years ago to isolate the ERPM working areas from the Central Basin. This programme was partially funded by the Department of Minerals and Energy and was completed in 2008. The mined out area behind these plugs has been flooding. The Central Basin Environmental Corporation was established to find a solution for this water problem. Taking a leaf out of WBEC’s book, CBEC formed a partnership with Western Utilities. It is likely that the long-term sustainable solution will be a treatment plant, treating water from both the Central and Western basins. Murray & Roberts is currently performing a feasibility study at ERPM and costing the different options available to the CBEC. “The pumping station is the only final solution there can be, but we’re not sure what level it will be at yet. We’re looking at around 600 metres below surface,” Epstein said. The old isolated section of ERPM together with the Central Rand Basin are currently being flooded at a rate of 0.9 metres per day and the water level is currently at 800 metres below surface. CRG estimates the pumping station will be completed within the next 18 months.