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South Africa
Witwatersrand Basin-Qala Shallows Mine

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 Location:
15 km W from Johannesburg, South Africa

  Regional Office:
Meyer &Co, Block A, Tiger Valley Office Park, 1st Floor, 10 Pony Street, Silver Lakes
Pretoria
South Africa
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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeUnderground
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Breast mining
  • Pillar mining
Production Start...
Mine Life15.7 years (as of Jan 1, 2022)
The Witwatersrand Basin Project is set to deliver a significant 1,615,000oz of Gold over a 27-year Life-of-Mine with an estimated 16.1M tonnes at a Run of Mine grade of 3.11g/t Au Gold from mining Stages 1-4.

The target areas in the WBP as follows:
- Qala Shallows (Stage 1) Qala Shallows had a projected steady state ROM production at a rate of 55,000oz Au per annum for approximately 10 years and total production of 663,000oz Au over a 17-year LOM.
- Main Reef Package (Stage 2) Estimated to provide 593,000t at a ROM grade of 3.36g/t Au for 64,000oz of additional production over years 4 to 7 combined.
- Bird Reef East (Stage 3) Estimated to provide 897,000t at a ROM grade of 3.34g/t Au for 96,000oz of additional production over years 6 to 12 combined.
- Qala Deeps (Stage 4) Estimated to provide 7.3Mt at a ROM grade of 3.11g/t Au for 732,000oz of additional production over years 13 to 27 combined.
- Bird Reef Central (Stage 5) was excluded from the analysis.


Owners

Source: p. 1,3
CompanyInterestOwnership
Lilitha Resources (Pty) Ltd. 26 % Indirect
West Wits Mining Ltd. 74 % Indirect
West Wits Mining Limited (“WWI”) to increase ownership in the Witwatersrand Basin Project (“WBP”) to 74%. The BEE structure surpasses South Africa’s Mining Charter requirement of a minimum of 26%, Lilitha Resources (Pty) Ltd.

Contractors

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Deposit Type

  • Conglomerate hosted


Summary:

South Africa’s gold production is centred overwhelmingly on the Witwatersrand Basin, a 350km arcuate basin that stretches to the east and west of Johannesburg and southwards into the Free State. This basin comprises seven major discrete gold fields and has historically produced over 247 million of ounces of Gold. The Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP) comprises five distinct project areas and overlays different reef horizons of the Central Rand Group. The five principal auriferous conglomerate units in the Central Rand Gold Field are the Main Reef, Main Reef Leader, South Reef and Bird Reefs, which occur as part of the Johannesburg subgroup. The fifth conglomerate unit, Kimberley Reefs, are locally important and forms part of the Turffontein subgroup, which overlies the Johannesburg subgroup. The WBP has been split in two, i.e. the east and west sides. The re-evaluation focussed on the eastern portion of the project, namely the Bird Reef (BR), Main Reef Leader (MRL) and Main Reef (MR) mineral resources. This dividing line between the East and West is defined by a large fault that displaces the reef horizons with approximately 350m on surface. The area now outlined as WBP East was historically mined by Rand Leases. All three reefs (BR, MRL and MR) have extensive lengths of outcrop, with an approximate length of 2.2km outcrop inside West Wits’ Mining Right boundary. Historically, opencast mining already exploited the reefs on outcrop position. From the outcrop, the reefs dip ........


Mining Methods

  • Breast mining
  • Pillar mining


Summary:

Qala Shallows represents only Stage 1 of 5 projects stages to be developed by West Wits (WWI) comprising the Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP).

The West Wits initiated an Early Works Program at Qala Shallows in October 2021, engaging mining contractor, Modi Mining (Pty) Ltd (“Modi”). The Early Works Program presented an ideal opportunity to establish a small-scale mining operation, with the objective to proof the designed mining method to mine areas already exposed at WBP and resulted in the delivery of first ore of approximately 3 000t during the period.

This allowed the West Wits team to expedite the production profile to allow for a quicker build-up to an increased steady-state production level.

A mining method selection process was undertaken. The evaluation of various alternative mining methods considered for the Qala Shallows Project showed that conventional breast mining in an underhand configuration is the optimal method for the Qala Shallows deposit.

The stopes will be accessed by strike drives developed on the K9B Reef horizon and both K9A and K9B stopes will be accessed from this infrastructure. The strike drives will connect to a decline system developed from the existing Qala Adit box cut, which will be located centrally in the mining area and in the footwall of the K9B Reef.

Most of the mining will take place in a large unmined block of ground to the east of the property, there will however also be limited m ........


Crushing and Grinding
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Processing

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Summary:

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Production:

CommodityUnitsAvg. Annual (Projected)LOM (Projected)
Gold oz 43,000668,000


Reserves at July 15, 2022:
The reported Ore Reserve is considered appropriate and representative of the grade and tonnage at the 2 g/t cut-off grade.

Mineral Resource within mining right boundary, date 25th June 2021 at a cut-off grade of 2g/t.

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 0.83 Mt Gold 3.04 g/t 81,301 oz
Probable 2.38 Mt Gold 2.73 g/t 208,677 oz
Proven & Probable 3.21 Mt Gold 2.81 g/t 289,977 oz
Measured 4 Mt Gold 4.51 g/t 0.58 M oz
Indicated 8 Mt Gold 4.2 g/t 1.08 M oz
Inferred 6.6 Mt Gold 5.18 g/t 1.1 M oz
Total Resource 18.6 Mt Gold 4.51 g/t 2.7 M oz



Heavy Mobile Equipment:
HME TypeModelSizeQuantityStatusLeased or
Contractor
Ref. Date
Cassette Truck ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Proposed Leased Sep 2, 2021
Drill jumbo (two boom) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Existing Leased Dec 15, 2021
Load-Haul-Dump (LHD) ....................... Subscription required 10 t ....................... Subscription required Existing Leased Dec 15, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Proposed Leased Sep 2, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Proposed Leased Sep 2, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Proposed Leased Sep 2, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Proposed Leased Sep 2, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Proposed Leased Sep 2, 2021
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 3, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 3, 2022
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Staff:

Total WorkforceYear
Subscription required 2021

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Annual Report 2022
Corporate Presentation 2022
Feasibility Study Report 2022
Preliminary Economic Assessment 2022
Press Release 2022
Press Release 2022
Press Release 2022
Quarterly Report 2022
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
Environmental Impact Statement 2018
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