Free State Business 2017 edition

OVERVIEW
of three towns that play an important
part in industrial production:
Vereeniging, Sasolburg and
Vanderbijlpark. The mine employs
more than 900 people and supplies
about 15-million metric tons
of coal to Eskom’s Lethabo Power
Station annually. This mine will be
among the assets on the block
when Anglo American disposes
of all its coal mines. To what degree
the sale will be an opportunity
to increase black ownership
of mines remains to be seen.
Gold
AngloGold Ashanti’s Vaal River
Complex operations are mostly
near the town of Orkney in the
North West Province. However,
the Great Noligwa, Kopanang
and Moab Khotsong mines are
all over the Vaal River in the Free
State. The complex includes one
uranium plant, four gold plants
and one sulphuric acid plant.
AngloGold Ashanti intends to
spend several billion rands over
the next decade to extend the
life of the Moab Khotsong mine.
Village Main Reef runs the Tau
Lekoa mine in the same vicinity.
Most of Harmony’s operations,
including a tailings treatment,
are in the Free State.
The mines are Tshepong and
Phakisa (near Odendaalsrus),
Virginia, Target (near Allanridge),
Masimong (Riebeeckstad),
Joel (near Theunissen) and
Bambanani at Welkom. Phakisa
has mineral reserves of just over
five-million ounces of gold and
Harmony has invested heavily
in the project. Bambanani
is regarded as the most profitable mine in the group: the
amount of gold produced at the mine increased in 2015 to
2 908kg from 1 606kg in 2013. Target and Tshepong (the most northerly
of the mines in this cluster) together produced 8 102kg in 2015.
Gold mines in the Free State also supply a substantial portion of
the total silver produced in the country, and large concentrations of
uranium occurring in the gold-bearing conglomerates of the gold
fields are extracted as a by-product.
Taung Gold, a Chinese company, runs the Jeanette mine near the
town of Welkom.
Other minerals
By-products of gold operations (uranium, silver, platinum-group
metals and sulphuric acid) and bentonite are also found in the province.
Among the companies running large quarries in the Free State are
Lafarge, Raumix and Corobrik. Sand, stone aggregate, gypsum and
granite are found at various sites throughout the province. Limestone
and calcrete occur in the western Free State where salt is also panned.
Production is concentrated around the Florisbad salt pan, north-west
of Bloemfontein. The Ocean Bentonite Mine near Koppies in the northwest
Free State is one of only two in the country.
CONTACT INFO
Chamber of Mines of South Africa: www.bullion.org.za
Geological Society of South Africa: www.gssa.org.za
Mining Qualifications Authority: www.mqa.org.za
National Department of Mineral Resources: www.dmr.gov.za
South African Mining Development Association: www.samda.co.za
Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy:
www.saimm.co.za
47 FREE STATE BUSINESS 2017