New frontiers in Africa gold mining

Surging prices and the depletion of known or relatively accessible deposits is spurring gold miners operating in Africa into new frontiers on a range of fronts: technical, environmental and regional.

Following are some of the new frontiers in African gold mining, which will be in the spotlight next week at the annual African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

NEW DEPTHS
AngloGold, the world's no. 3 gold miner, aims to go from 4 km down to 5 km (3 miles) to unlock over $120 billion worth of gold by using radical techniques such as cutting rocks instead of blasting to unlock 70 million additional ounces of gold.

AngloGold currently operates the world's deepest mines, and its Mponeng operation in South Africa is about 4 km down.

These changes involve replacing blasting with machines to mechanically cut the rock and removing workers from the narrow passages known as stopes.

By the middle of this year, the company aims to have a prototype project up and running to replace blasting with rock cutting, according to Mike MacFarlane, AngloGold's senior vice president for technology who is leading the project.

AngloGold has signalled it wants a working model for this transition in three to five years. The rewards could be huge as the given 70 million ounces targeted would fetch $122 billion at current spot prices.

Rival Gold Fields is down 3.4 km and has hinted that it also has technological breakthroughs up its sleeve.

NEW REGIONS
On the other side of the continent, virgin terrain is being scoured in countries that have been barely mined, at least in modern times.

One region that has aroused much interest is the Arabian-Nubian Shield in northeastern Africa, which has similar geology to gold-rich western Australia.

Countries in that region being probed for gold and other precious metals and minerals include Eritrea, Egypt and Africa's newest state South Sudan.

Smaller companies involved there include Australian-based Gippsland which has two exploration licences in Eritrea's Adobha region.

China's SFECO Group, a subsidiary of Shanghai Construction Group co, is in the process of acquiring a gold development project in Eritrea. African Barrick Gold has signalled it is interested in the region and AngloGold has exploration projects in Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The region has an ancient tradition of gold mining that dates to the era of pharaohs and pyramids but a major obstacle in northeast Africa is water, or the lack of it.

Global satelite maps of the region shroud it in some shade of red to highlight it is one of driest regions on earth.

In West Africa, Ivory Coast is an emerging frontier. RandGold Resources is operating there and its Tongon mine, developed during a civil war, is on track to produce 270,000 ounces of gold a year.

The company has cited reliable power sources - a rarity in much of Africa - as an investment plus in the country.

Newcrest Mining has exploration projects in the country and has said results have been "encouraging."

More broadly, geologists say much of Africa's unexplored geology lies under two very different environments, equatorial rain forest and desert.

The Congo Basin rainforest is the second largest in the world and covers around 1.8 million square km. But exploitation of the mineral resources that may lie beneath it would raise serious environmental issues.

NEW ECOYSTEMS
AuruMar, a joint venture between AngloGold and diamond giant De Beers, is exploring for gold in shallow waters off the west coast of South Africa.

Diamond production has been successful in waters in the area. A suction nozzle is employed which sucks up or disturbs the top two metres of the seabed and the natural material is returned after the gold or diamonds have been separated from it.

Gold extraction remains a long way off but a sampling programme commenced in December and the initial phase will be completed in December, according to ArurMar general manager Paul Bosma.