Development at Barberton Mines’ Royal Sheba project commenced in May 2021 at the already established surface adit, which is located approximately 1.2km east of the existing Sheba metallurgical plant. At the end of its life, the BTRP is expected to be converted to a hard rock operation to process feedstock from Royal Sheba, with the project having an estimated life of 18 years.
The development plan is set to target the extraction of 40,000t a month from the project at an average head grade of 3g/t over its LoM. This will be done by implementing long hole open stoping mining methods from a decline system through the use of trackless mining machinery and automation requiring a minimal labour complement.
