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SA gold sector bulking up Posted: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 [miningmx.com] -- THE prospect of a higher long-term rand gold price has added spice to the gold mining sector with a number of interesting prospects kicking about that were absent less than 18 months ago. Some gold enterprises are getting a new lease on life. One is the Burnstone project in Mpumalanga province which is owned by Great Basin Gold. Its newly appointed CEO, Ferdi Dippenaar, is hopeful of bringing Great Basin to the JSE, possibly before the half-year is out. “There’s been quite a lot of interest from the local guys in Burnstone, so we’re thinking of getting a secondary listing,” said Dippenaar. That will allow investors the opportunity to buy two relatively highly speculative gold shares, including Wits Gold. But perhaps there’s more to come. Rand Quest Syndicate (RQS) is a private company hoping to restart mining at closed central rand mines including Langlaagte, the first gold mine in Johannesburg. Its CEO, Harry Mason, is compiling a business case he hopes will first list on Britain’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Test work on the properties, which also includes the Argonaut project – part of which runs beneath central Johannesburg – is being completed by Morris Viljoen and his twin brother Richard, both professors of Geology at Wits. Said Viljoen: “We’ve basically got the only application in for the rest of Argonaut. But we’ve also recently bought the Langlaagte mine from Loucas Pouroulis (chairman of Eland Platinum) as well as Robinson Deep.” The backer to RQS is an entrepreneur called Mark Creasy, named the 680th richest man on the UK Sunday Times’ 2006 rich list with a personal wealth of £85m. Empowerment company Pamodzi Resources may list a gold company comprising the assets of Petrex Mines, owned by Bema Gold, a Canadian firm. On May 3, Bema’s SA subsidiary, Bema SA, signed a memorandum of understanding with Pamodzi Resources allowing it to buy up to 51% of Petrex Mines if it invests R50m into the east Rand operations. The partners are also considering listing on the JSE. Aflease Gold is seeking east Rand gold mining exploration, but there’s another potential junior mining listing in Central African Gold, an AIM listed firm now run by Greg Hunter. Hunter was the former CEO of Metallon Gold, a business owned by Mzi Khumalo’s Metallon Corporation. Said Hunter: “We have a number of exploration properties in Mail, which is the right street address. The company has £9m in the bank with a number of key personalities including Mark Roslee as financial director (also formerly Metallon.”Free news alerts: click here to subscribe
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