Izak Marais, Aflease COO
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» Aflease wraps up funding of flagship gold project
» AfGold bid "completely off the table" for Great Basin
» Uranium One to swell Aflease Gold asset base
» Uranium One may quit Aflease Gold
» A new Johannesburg gold mine

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Aflease plots 500,000 oz gold strategy
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Wed, 12 Dec 2007

[miningmx.com] -- AFLEASE GOLD will release a resources statement on its Ventersburg gold prospect early next year and sees the mine pushing annual gold production up to 500,000 oz/year, chief operating officer Izak Marais said on Wednesday.

JSE-listed Aflease is on target with work at its Modder East Gold mine, which will begin production in third quarter of 2009, while it waits for mining rights to proceed with production from its Sub Nigel mine. These two mines will produce a total of 240,000 oz/year.

Aflease, a Uranium One subsidiary, has started exploration at its Ventersburg prospect in the Free State province to develop a mine that could double gold output to 500,000 oz, newly appointed Marais told Miningmx in an interview.
the other half of the 500,000 oz target
“Ventersburg is bigger than Modder East. To my mind, that could be the other half of the 500,000 oz target we’ve set ourselves,” he said.

Uranium One has publicly stated it plans to exit Aflease Gold. The exact strategy is not yet known and Marais declined to comment on the matter.

A resource at the Ventersburg prospect will be declared early in 2008. The crew that developed the greenfield Modder East project, Aflease’s flagship mine, will be set to work on the Ventersburg project.

“Ventersburg is exactly the same footprint as Modder East. It’s a copy of what we have there. We’ll get Modder East to full production level and then by that time we’ll hopefully have a mine we can start at Ventersburg,” Marais said.

Ventersburg, where drilling has intercepted the reef nine times, is a shallow prospect like Modder East, going down about 400 metres.

Sub Nigel will be a 40,000 oz/year gold mine, but there is capacity to grow the mine because of large and shallow deposits around the mine which Aflease Gold has yet to begin exploring.

Aflease Gold is in constant talks with the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) about securing mining rights for Sub Nigel. The DME has requested revisions to the mine’s social and labour plans. Marais was unable to say when the rights might be granted.

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It will take between three to six months to bring the mothballed Sub Nigel into production.

Marais was appointed chief operating officer at Aflease Gold after resigning from embattled opencast fluorspar producer Sallies. His background is in gold mining and he worked with Aflease Gold and Uranium One CEO Neal Froneman at the Kloof mine.

Marais is revelling being back in an underground gold mine environment again.

“It’s absolutely thrilling to be back in gold. It’s like riding a bike going underground again. Everything just came flooding back,” he said, but he was appointed by Froneman for more than just his background in gold mining.

“I bring the experience from a listed company angle, exposure to the markets, the stock exchange, export markets and the marketing side,” Marais said. “At Aflease we are going to develop an identity that will require me to interact with the market, shareholders and stakeholders. I’ve done all that.”

The Modder East mine to the east of Johannesburg is on track to begin production in the third quarter of 2009, with the decline and underground development teams racing against the teams building the processing plant.

“It’s a competition between the guys to see who’ll be so far ahead of his delivery date he can tell the others he’s waiting for them,” Marais said.