[miningmx.com] — FORMER head of Anooraq Resources, Philip Kotze, has been appointed as the new CEO of Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold (Wits Gold) and said the group was ready to move from being an explorer to a developer of mines.
Kotze replaced Marc Watchorn, who was with the company for nine years, on Monday. Watchorn would “pursue his own business interests’, read a company announcement.
“With Wits Gold now embarking on the development of two potential new gold mines, we are particularly pleased that Philip Kotze, with his previous extensive mining experience at Anglo Gold, Harmony and Anooraq Resources, has agreed to join us,’ said company chairperson Adam Fleming.
Watchorn told journalists last week during a site visit at Wits Gold’s core yard in Potchefstroom, that the company would have to increase its skills base in order to move on from being an explorer to a developer. He and the majority of his management team were geologists.
Kotze told Miningmx on Monday Wits Gold was ready to move to its next stage.
“Exploration will always be a part of our company, but we also have to move on,’ he said. “We need people who can build projects. I’ve been in the industry for 30 years now with an extensive contacts network, so I believe I would be able to add value in this regard.’
The company’s most advanced exploration asset is the De Bron/Merriespruit (DBM) project in the Free State. Based on the results of a scoping study completed in June, DBM would have a 25-year life-of-mine, estimated to produce 2.9Moz at an average of 150,000oz per year, requiring peak funding of some R1.6bn. Average cash costs is estimated to be around $569/oz – which would make the mine among the lowest cash cost producers in South Africa, comparable to Gold One’s Modder East mine and Great Basin Gold’s Burnstone.
A feasibility study is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. The mine, which would take an estimated 32 months to be developed, could be in production by late 2015.
Asked what the major challenges would be for developing a new gold mine in South Africa, Kotze said one has to find ways to improve productivity given rising costs associated with labour. In this regard he would favour the long-haul mechanised stoping methods for narrow vein deposits, as employed at Burnstone.
Kotze is a qualified mining engineer, and has held operational and executive positions at AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold prior to his stint as CEO of Anooraq.
He left Anooraq in April, shortly before the company embarked on a restructuring programme.
Wits Gold’s JSE-listed shares were not traded by 14:05 on Monday. The company’s closing price on Friday was R43.55.
