130 year
Mining Legacy
The operations that make up the Group’s Barberton Mines complex have been operating for over 100 years and include the Fairview, Consort and Sheba Mines. These flagship mines are long-life, high-grade operations that produce some 80,000oz of gold per year with an excellent safety record. Barberton Mines has a life of mine estimated at 20 years within the currently identified Mineral Resources. The team at Barberton Gold Mines achieved the milestone of 3 million fatality free shifts in June 2020.
Fairview Mine is the birthplace of BIOX® (Biological Oxidation), an environmentally friendly process of releasing the gold from the sulphide that surrounds the gold, using organisms that perform this process naturally and is still used as the training facility for all BIOX® plants globally. Sheba Mine is one of the oldest and richest working gold mines in the world.
Fairview Mine
Increased mineral reserve delineation drilling has:
- Improved geological models and predictability
- Enabled development towards down-dip extensions of the orebodies
- Improved confidence in the grade control models that can be updated to inform mine design optimisation
MRC orebody – Five high-grade platforms (256, 258, 259, and 358) now established to improve mining flexibility
- Six diamond boreholes were completed exploring the immediate down-dip extent from the 258 to 259 platforms
- Measured Resource of 24.5kt at an average of 42.6g/t delineated
- Drilling in FY23 will target further down-dip extensions to the 260 platform
- Down-dip extent is open at depth and informs the 20-year LOM of this orebody
Rossiter orebody – Three mining platforms now available, further improving flexibility
- Drilling intersected significant free gold mineralization – grades ranging from 29g/t over 2.9m/t to 165g/t over 0.7m, in separate boreholes
Sub-vertical shaft design progressing – will increase production by up to 10k oz per year through increased hoisting capacity
- Optimised infrastructure will further reduce costs
Design work in progress for the development and equipping of the 4 Decline from 42 to 64 Level- will decongest existing infrastructure and improve the production profile
Sheba Mine
Focus on the extraction of MRC and ZK orebodies
- Development on the down-dip extension of ZK on 37 and 38 Levels towards Fairview
- 10 diamond boreholes were drilled to upgrade Mineral Resources
Additional platforms developed at high-grade free-milling Thomas orebody
- Mining method optimised from long-hole open stoping to up-dip mining – limits dilution
Prospective shallow Mineral Resources on the northern limb were explored
- On 22 Level, 8 additional boreholes planned for FY23
- On 23 Level, 11 diamond boreholes were drilled to explore the up-dip extent of the 260 Cross Fracture
Project Dibanisa
Development to connect the underground infrastructure of Fairview and Sheba Mines will:
- Optimise costs and efficiencies, increase production
- Allow Sheba’s MRC Shaft ore to be processed at Fairview’s metallurgical and BIOX plants
- Moving ore through Fairview will create capacity at Sheba’s ZK Shaft and metallurgical plant
Work in progress includes:
- Rehabilitation of required rails and haulages at Fairview and Sheba
- Establishment of a series of 3 ore-passes between Sheba 23 Level and Fairview 38 Level haulages
- Project construction to be completed by December 2022 – with the first Sheba ore expected to be hoisted at Fairview during Q3 of FY23
Related Questions
How many mines are there in Barberton?
There are four mines in Barberton, including Fairview Mine, Sheba Mine, New Consort Mine and Agnes Mine. Gold mining is the main operation at all four mines. The Barberton area is abundant with gold-bearing reefs.
How many mines are there in Mpumalanga?
There are more than 200 mines in Mpumalanga as listed on the official Department of Mineral Resources website. This includes 13 gold mining operations.