Free State Business 2019 edition

OVERVIEW
Gold
AngloGold Ashanti has sold most of its Vaal River Complex mines
to Harmony Gold Mining for $300-million. Most of the mines are in
the North West Province, but Great Noligwa and Kopanang mines
are in the Free State. The complex includes one uranium plant, four
gold plants and one sulphuric acid plant.
These assets will increase Harmony’s underground resource base
in South Africa by nearly 40%. Most of Harmony’s operations, including
a tailings treatment plant, are in the Free State. The other mines
are Tshipong 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.
The other buyer from AngloGold Ashanti was Heaven-Sent. The
Chinese company, which controls the Tau Lekoa mine through
Village Main Reef, bought the Kopanang mine and associated assets
for R100-million. Another Chinese company, Taung Gold, runs
the Jeanette mine near Welkom.
Sibanye Gold came into existence as a result of the unbundling
of Gold Fields, but it has now been rebranded as Sibanye Stillwater
because of the purchase of a platinum and palladium mine in the
US of that name. The company is responsible for the Beatrix mine in
the Free State but most of its gold assets are in Gauteng.
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
goldfields are extracted as a by-product.
Coal
Coal is mostly found in the northern part of the Free State and the
gold fields, which form part of the Witwatersrand Basin, stretch
from north of Welkom to south of Virginia.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Geological Society of South Africa: www.gssa.org.za
Minerals Council of South Africa: www.mineralscouncil.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
The Sigma-Mookraal mine
is run by Sasol Mining and has
the capacity to supply Sasol
Infrachem in Sasolburg with
two-million tons of coal per
year.
Seriti Resources has purchased
the New Vaal Colliery
from Anglo American. Together
with two other mines in
Mpumalanga Province, Seriti
paid R2.3-billion. New Vaal is in
the middle of a triangle 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.
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 north-west Free
State is one of only two in the
country.
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FREE STATE BUSINESS 2019