Monday, 26th March 2007 (2469 views)

With the price of gold currently strong against the Rand in South Africa, mining firms are increasingly repossessing waste material in order to extract the smallest amounts of gold within the crushed and processed ore.

While previously the relatively low price of gold had made repossessing waste economically unviable, current market conditions are seeing firms, including Gold Fields and Harmony, turn to the method.

Speaking to Reuters, the chief executive of Harmony Bernard Swanepoel, said: "It's really like building a brand new gold mine but for a fraction of the cost.

"This is the one place where the gold price makes a real fundamental difference to a project because of the short lead time."

Currently, many repossessing projects have set themselves targets of extracting between 0.2 and 0.4 grams per tonne from waste material, in comparison to around ten grams per tonne for underground seams.

However, while constructing a repossessing plant requires only about two years, many industry experts are unconvinced that the practice will reach the levels it did in the 1980s, largely due to the risk associated with the substantial up-front investment required.

 

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