In January 2006 DRDGOLD SA was granted prospecting rights for the Argonaut lease area in terms of South Africa’s new Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act.
The Argonaut project covers the southern down-dip extension of the Central Witwatersrand Goldfield, previously mined to depths of between 1 800 and 2 500 metres.
Its focus is the exploitation of a part of the potential resource striking 30 kilometres from ERPM in the east to the Durban Roodepoort Deep mine in the west, at depths of between approximately 2 800 and 5 000 metres.
The project has been the focus of research on the part of the South African gold mining industry’s collaborative Deep Mine programme, to investigate the required technologies to mine safely and profitably at depths of as much as 5 000 metres.
The area of the prospecting and eventual mining right covers some 969 hectares. The estimated resource, at anticipated grades of 8.5g/t, could yield some 8.9 million ounces (280 000 kilograms) of gold over the life of the mine.
The prospecting right, covering an area of 969 hectares, has been granted for a period of five years with effect from January 2006. Prospecting is carried out on surface by a borehole and borehole deflections, and an environmental impact study has been completed and accepted. As the area covered by the current prospecting right is too small to sustain an ultra-deep level mining operation, an application for an extension to the current prospecting right by an additional 4002 hectares was submitted to the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME). The application was rejected by the DME as prospecting would take place within a residential township. An appeal against the DME’s decision is being lodged. In the meantime, and pending a decision on our appeal, exploration activity has been halted in the granted prospecting area.
