WEST WITS MINING LIMITED Fast Facts Capital Structure: Shares on issue Options Market Cap Cash in Bank Debt Enterprise Value (EV) EV/oz | @ 22 Jan 2016 456 million 52 million A$10 million A$1.6 million Nil A$8.4 million A$6.90/oz |
Company Directors & Management Michael Quinert Chairman Vin Savage Executive Director Neil Pretorius Non-Exec Director Hulme Scholes Non-Exec Director | |
Top Shareholders ≈ Twynam Ag DRD Gold Ltd Top 40 Shareholders | 19.9% 11% 74% |
Company Highlights
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Contact Details West Wits Mining Limited ACN 124 894 060 Suite 1, 1233 High Street Armadale VIC 3143 T: +61 3 8692 9049 F: +61 3 8692 9040 E: info@westwitsmining.com W: www.westwitsmining.com | |
Friday, 22 January 2016
ASX: WWI
www.westwitsmining.com
West Wits has focused its efforts onto verifying and updating its Mineral Resource Estimate for the gold bearing reefs within its Soweto Cluster project.
High confidence in resource with over 70 % of the resource in Measured & Indicated
Resource constrained to within 400m of current surface.
Results below are highlighted at a 2.0g/t cut-off grade.
1.2 M ounces Au in Global Resource
302,300 ounces Au in Measured resource category o 566,400 ounces Au in Indicated resource category o 350,000 ounces in Inferred resource category
West Wits Mining Limited ("West Wits" or "the Company") is pleased to announce an update of a previous Mineral Resource Estimate to bring it into alignment with the JORC 2012 Code for its 74 % owned Soweto Cluster project in Gauteng Province of the Republic of South Africa (RSA).
This new estimate relies heavily on a detailed review of an extensive database generated by Durban Roodeport Deep Limited ("DRD") for the Mineral Resources published under a previous version of the JORC Code to the ASX in 2000. Importantly this Mineral Resource Estimate forms a subset of that 2000 resource in that it is constrained to less than 400m depth from surface and does not include deep underground material previously considered in the DRD estimation.
Category | Tonnes (kT) | Grade g/t Au | Ounces Au |
Measured | 2,214 | 4.25 | 302,300 |
Indicated | 5,317 | 3.31 | 566,400 |
Measured & Indicated | 7,531 | 3.59 | 868,700 |
Inferred | 3,452 | 3.15 | 350,000 |
Total | 1,098 | 3.45 | 1,218,700 |
Table 1. Updated Mineral Resource estimate for the Soweto Cluster at a 2.0 g/t cut-off. Number differences may occur due to rounding errors. The Global Mineral Resource statement at a range of cut-off grades and listed separately for each of the seven target reefs is presented in Table 2.
Michael Quinert, Chairman, commented "This is a pleasing result for West Wits which provides a strong resource base to underpin the Company and a fundamental platform from which to develop the Company's South African strategy. The comprehensive data review undertaken has generated a significant resource statement for the Company which would have otherwise cost a substantial sum to develop or acquire even in the current climate. In effect the old DRD resource has been updated into a new JORC statement to 400 m depth.
"There are also further areas the Company is reviewing which whilst they formed part of the previously announced Exploration Target were not taken into the original DRD Mineral Resource Estimate because of factors such as the presence of mine infrastructure on the surface and crown pillars. With the passage of time these factors are no longer relevant as old mills have been removed and many crown pillars are largely redundant due to the resource limit of 400 m depth.
"The Company has also undertaken an assessment of data resulting from extensive sampling conducted on the historic Bird Reef both by the Company and its predecessors. This has led to further areas of interest for investigation which remain outside both the JORC resource and exploration Target."
Cut-Off (g/t) Au | Reef | Tonnes (kt) | Measured Grade Au (g/t) | Total Au (Oz) | Tonnes (kt) | Indicated Grade Au (g/t) | Total Au (Oz) | Tonnes (kt) | Inferred Grade Au (g/t) | Total Au (Oz) |
1.0 g/t | Bird | 843 | 3.34 | 90,600 | 4,915 | 2.69 | 425,100 | 2,245 | 2.23 | 161,000 |
K9B | 47 | 3.74 | 5,700 | 129 | 3.82 | 15,800 | 224 | 4.18 | 30,100 | |
K9T | 69 | 3.74 | 8,300 | 27 | 8.00 | 7,000 | - | - | - | |
Leader | 72 | 4.12 | 9,500 | 71 | 3.51 | 8,000 | 94 | 3.64 | 11,000 | |
Main | 1,067 | 4.40 | 151,000 | 1,451 | 3.75 | 174,800 | 844 | 3.57 | 96,900 | |
South | 193 | 6.58 | 40,900 | - | - | - | 6 | 4.11 | 800 | |
VCR | - | - | - | 49 | 2.01 | 3,200 | 1,182 | 2.85 | 108,300 | |
Total | 2,290 | 4.16 | 306,000 | 6,642 | 2.97 | 633,900 | 4,595 | 2.76 | 408,100 | |
2.0 g/t | Bird | 794 | 3.45 | 88,200 | 3,658 | 3.07 | 361,600 | 1,132 | 2.88 | 104,700 |
K9B | 47 | 3.74 | 5,700 | 129 | 3.82 | 15,800 | 224 | 4.18 | 30,100 | |
K9T | 69 | 3.74 | 8,300 | 27 | 8.00 | 7,000 | - | - | - | |
Leader | 70 | 4.16 | 9,400 | 71 | 3.51 | 8,000 | 94 | 3.64 | 11,000 | |
Main | 1,041 | 4.48 | 149,800 | 1,383 | 3.84 | 170,800 | 814 | 3.64 | 95,100 | |
South | 193 | 6.58 | 40,900 | - | - | - | 6 | 4.11 | 800 | |
VCR | - | - | - | 49 | 2.01 | 3,200 | 1,182 | 2.85 | 108,300 | |
Total | 2,214 | 4.25 | 302,300 | 5,317 | 3.31 | 566,400 | 3,452 | 3.15 | 350,000 | |
3.0 g/t | Bird | 505 | 3.95 | 64,100 | 1,635 | 3.78 | 198,700 | 455 | 3.61 | 52,800 |
K9B | 44 | 3.79 | 5,400 | 129 | 3.82 | 15,800 | 224 | 4.18 | 30,100 | |
K9T | 48 | 4.14 | 6,400 | 27 | 8.00 | 7,000 | - | - | - | |
Leader | 65 | 4.26 | 8,900 | 57 | 3.78 | 6,900 | 48 | 4.34 | 6,700 | |
Main | 791 | 5.08 | 129,200 | 1,029 | 4.29 | 142,000 | 670 | 3.83 | 82,600 | |
South | 176 | 6.96 | 39,500 | - | 0.00 | - | 6 | 4.11 | 800 | |
VCR | - | - | - | - | 0.00 | - | - | - | - | |
Total | 1,629 | 4.84 | 253,500 | 2,877 | 4.01 | 370,400 | 1,403 | 3.84 | 173,000 | |
4.0 g/t | Bird | 176 | 4.75 | 26,900 | 519 | 4.48 | 74,800 | 3 | 4.66 | 400 |
K9B | 14 | 4.36 | 1,900 | 28 | 4.45 | 4,000 | 155 | 4.35 | 21,600 | |
K9T | 24 | 4.54 | 3,500 | 27 | 8.00 | 7,000 | - | - | - | |
Leader | 33 | 5.13 | 5,400 | 18 | 4.37 | 2,500 | 33 | 4.78 | 5,000 | |
Main | 644 | 5.44 | 112,700 | 497 | 5.10 | 81,500 | 176 | 5.16 | 29,200 | |
South | 141 | 7.83 | 35,400 | - | - | - | 6 | 4.11 | 800 | |
VCR | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
Total | 1,031 | 5.61 | 185,800 | 1,089 | 4.85 | 169,800 | 372 | 4.77 | 57,000 |
Table 2: Global Mineral Resource Estimation shown for Measured, Indicated and Inferred categories and by reef.
The Company also notes:
Analysis of cases similar to WWI in the Witwatersrand Basin show that the present day cost of validating the existing historical data is a small fraction of the cost of the work that would be required to acquire and develop the data in present day brownfields situations.
The chosen headline cut-off (2.0 g/t) is based on historic figures and should ensure that the bulk of the resources announced today can be reasonably expected to be capable of being exploited.
In addition, the Company is in the process of an assessment of the historic Bird Reef exploration conducted by DRD and WWI (2008 and 2015) and have delineated a substantial zone of unclassified target mineralisation in a previously unmined area that is excluded from this estimation. We expect the results of this study to be available shortly.
The Soweto Cluster comprises two historic mining centres known as the Durban Roodepoort Deep and the Rand Leases on the Northern Edge of the Witwatersrand Basin in the Central Rand Goldfield immediately southwest of the city of Johannesburg (Figure 1). Mining has been taking place within these areas since discovery of the goldfields in 1886. During that time up to seven different gold bearing conglomerate horizons have been mined from surface down to a depth of 3,100 metres and total production for the combined Durban Roodepoort Deep and Rand Leases area was over 30 million ounces of gold at a grade in excess of 5 g/t (ASX: West Wits Mining Limited Prospectus 15/11/2007).
Figure 1. Location of main auriferous lodes within the Soweto Cluster. The black boundary marks the extent of the WWI tenements in the area. The outcrops of the major reefs are shown. All reefs dip approximately 25° to 30° to the south.
Soweto Cluster Updated Resource EstimateThe gold mineralisation of the Soweto Cluster deposits form part of the Central Rand Goldfield hosted by the Witwatersrand Supergroup sediments. The Central Rand Goldfield is situated immediately to the south of Johannesburg and has been host to one of the most extensive gold reserves in the world (Figure 2). The reefs have been mined continuously on strike for approximately 32 km in an east/west direction, bounded by DRD in the west, and down-dip, to the south, for about 6 km from its outcrop position, to vertical depths of approximately 3 km. Between 1897 and 1984, approximately 9,000 tons (approx. 290 Moz Au) of gold were extracted from the Central Rand Goldfield. The gold orebodies occur in stacked, channelized, quartz pebble conglomerate horizons referred to as "reefs". The major orebodies mined in the Central Rand Goldfield are the Main Reef, Main Reef Leader, South Reef, Bird reefs and Kimberley reefs (Figure 3).
Figure 2. The mines of the Central Rand Goldfield. West Wits Soweto cluster comprises two historic leases, namely the DRD lease and Rand Leases. A sample of the quartz pebble conglomerate from the Main Reef is shown in the top right.
West Wits Mining Limited issued this content on 2016-01-22 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 2016-01-21 22:36:09 UTC
Original Document: http://www.westwitsmining.com/docs/280/
