[miningmx.com] – JUNIOR exploration firm, Wits Gold, is considering bids for the Burnstone and Navachab gold mines owned by Great Basin Gold and AngloGold Ashanti respectively as it seeks to transform into an operator.
Speaking to BDLive, Wits Gold CEO, Philip Kotze, said he thought his company could make a success of Burnstone provided it could be bought for the correct value. The mine, situated in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, proved too much for Great Basin to develop which went into business rescue proceedings last year.
“Our challenge is to not overpay for the asset. If we get it at the right price we can make a real success of Burnstone. Otherwise we are quite happy to walk away,” Kotze told BDLive.
Navachab, a gold mine in Namibia, was put for sale by AngloGold as part of that group’s restructuring process. Kotze said the purchase of both mines would help stage a rerating in the share price of Wits Gold.
Wits Gold is also developing its own assets. It will complete a bankable feasibility study in September to build a new gold mine at its shallow De Bron-Merriespruit deposit near Welkom in the Free State, said BDLive.
The project, with life-of-mine capital of $680m, would be funded with debt and equity in a 60:40 split, Kotze told BDLive.
