LOCAL GEOLOGY
The Blanket Mine is situated on the north-western limb of the Archaean Gwanda Greenstone Belt, along strike from several other gold deposits. It is one of the few remaining producing gold mines out of the approximately 268 mines that were once operational in this greenstone belt. The Gwanda Greenstone Belt is located in south-western Zimbabwe. It is approximately 70 km in length (west to east) and 15 km wide (north to south). The belt is typical of greenstone belts of the Zimbabwe Craton consisting of mafic to felsic volcanics with intercalated sedimentary units.

PROJECT GEOLOGY
At and near the Blanket Mine, the lithologies comprise felsic schists of either sedimentary or igneous origin, overlain by mafic to ultramafic rocks containing layers of BIF, in turn overlain by a thick sequence of mafic rocks. The mafic unit which hosts the gold mineralisation is mostly a metabasalt with some remnants of pillow basalts. Regionally, the rock is a fine-grained massive amphibolite with localised shear planes. The entire sequence is cut by a regional dolerite sill from the south, through the Blanket Mine, to the Smiler deposit which lies approximately 3 km north of the Blanket Mine. Mineralisation at Vubachikwe is hosted in BIF interlayers. The mineralisation at the Blanket Mine is located in the overlying mafic unit.

BLANKET MINE OREBODIES
JETHRO OREBODY
The Jethro orebody strikes north-south and dips near vertical in a westerly direction. It tends to roll over locally.

BLANKET SECTION
The Blanket Section orebodies are located approximately 400 m to the north of the Jethro orebody. Blanket orebodies 1 and 4 are parallel. They occupy north-south trending shear segments whereas orebodies 2 and 5, which are also parallel, strike northwest-southeast. Orebody 3 is cylindrical and lies in a shear segment parallel to the 2 and 5 orebodies. On average, the orebodies dip 80° southwest. On surface, the Blanket Quartz Reef lies in the footwall of the disseminated sulphide replacement type orebodies. The reef has a shallower dip than the disseminated sulphide replacement bodies, but plunges in the same direction so that it progressively advances towards them with depth, displacing orebodies 2, 3, 1, 4. Orebody 2 reappears on the footwall of the Blanket Quartz reef and is established on the 630 mL through to the 870 m Level.

AR OREBODIES
AR lies approximately 500 m to the north of the Blanket orebodies. It is a “Z”-shaped mineralised zone and consists of two separate orebodies that generally reach up to 30 m wide as a result of tectonic thickening from faulting and folding. Lateral diamond drillholes (250 m long) were drilled either side of the haulage every 50 m. The body has no known surface expression and appears to form a ‘peak’ under the regional dolerite sill just above 9 Level some 500 m north of the Blanket orebodies. From this point the body splits into two ore shoots: the AR Main and the AR South, plunging west at 55º and south-west at 58 º respectively.

AR MAIN
The AR Main is a DSR-type orebody occurring within a broad shear envelope in pillowed metabasalts. The envelope is generally irregular in plan and is bounded by shears which assist in defining the limits of the mineralisation. At the lowest level of development on 750 m Level, a shear disrupts the bodies causing the plunge to flatten to the west. The orebody strike is between 40 m and 60 m with an average width of 30 m at the centre of the envelope.

The ore is a silicified amphibolite consisting predominantly of quartz with minor carbonate and chlorite minerals. Gold mineralisation is associated with arsenopyrite and to a much lesser extent pyrrhotite and pyrite. The orebody is massive and is exploited using the long- hole open stoping method. It currently contributes 20% of the Blanket mine production.

AR SOUTH
The AR South orebody plunges southwest, trending towards the Blanket No 2 Orebody at depth. AR South is also developed within a broad shear zone and is more pipe-like than the main body. Its maximum thickness is approximately 50 m. High grade sections of this body are defined by silicification and arsenopyrite.

EROICA
The main Blanket underground workings are connected to Lima by a 2 km long haulage which follows the strike of the main fabric. It thus offered an opportunity to probe for lateral orebodies on either side which led to the discovery of the Eroica shoot. The Eroica orebody lies approximately 1,300 m north of the main Blanket Mineral Deposits. It dips at 65° to the west and has a strike length of 300 m in a northerly direction. The Eroica orebody is hosted in a high-strain area where the shear is up to 15 m wide. Brown carbonate alteration characterises the shear in strong association with biotite development. The orebody is defined by thin silicified stringers that develop into swells of up to 5 m in width.

LIMA
The Lima Section is situated 2 km north of the Blanket Section orebodies. The two mines are linked by an underground haulage. The main shoots are the Hanging wall and Interlimb. In the hanging wall limb, mineralisation exists in the form of pyrite with subordinate arsenopyrite in cleavage planes within the pervasive biotite/chlorite alteration. The Interlimb is characterised by a centrally silicified core with pyrite and arsenopyrite constituting the main sulphides.

Two main types of mineralisation are recognised at Blanket mine, namely disseminated sulphide replacement reefs (“DSR”) and quartz-filled reefs and shears.

Blanket Mine is part of the group of mines that make up the north-western Mining Camp, also called the Sabiwa group of mines. Blanket Mine is a cluster of mines that extend from Jethro in the south, through Blanket, Feudal, AR South, AR Main, Sheet, Eroica and Lima.

There are following ore bodies are mined: Jethro Orebody, Blanket Section, AR Orebodies, AR Main, AR South, Eroica and Lima.

Blanket Mine currently has several small shafts accessing the various orebodies extracted by the mining operations. These shafts are used to access the 5 main production levels, 7 Level (140 m Level), 9 Level (230 m Level), 14 Level (510 m Level), 18 Level (630 m Level) and 22 Level (750 m Level).

The main mining methods utilised at Blanket are:
• underhand stoping in the narrow mineral deposits; and
• long-hole stoping in the wider mineral deposits.

The mining activities will be targeting the Mineral Resources below 750 m Level as the primary production areas.

There is currently no need for backfilling any mining areas on Blanket Mine.

Blanket Mine is ventilated with natural ventilation with air downcast through Jethro, 5 Winze and 4 Shaft. The air is then moved through the mine with various axial flow ventilation fans. The older shafts are used as up cast ventilation shafts.

The nonyielding pillars are designed at a minimum width of 7.0 m and are planned on reef. Ventilation holing may be blasted through the pillars but should not exceed 5.0 m width. Local stability is obtained by means of in stope bolting of the hanging wall. Installation of grouted tendons reduces the risk of falls of ground and injury to mining personnel. The 2.3 m to 3.0 m support tendons are spaced 1.5 m x 1.5 m in a square pattern.

Development Dimensions:
Haulage (Trackless) - 3.0m Width x 3.0m Height;
Haulage (Track bound) - 3.0m Width x 3.0m Height;
Decline - 4.0m Width x 3.0m Height;
Winze 6 - 4 m diameter;
Central Shaft - circular - 6 m diameter;
Raise - 1.5m Width x 1.5m Height;
Other (Sub-drives) - 1.6m Width x 1.8m Height.

The crushing and milling circuits are designed to process RoM.

The plant consists of the following circuits:
- jaw crushing;
- cone crushing in closed circuit with a screen;
- primary rod mill in open circuit;
- ball mill in closed circuit with cyclones.

The skips automatically tip ore hoisted to surface into the Shaft Bins on the No4 Shaft headgear. Ore is gravity fed from the Shaft Bins onto the No1 belt which conveys the ore over the automated belt scale and to vibrating screens and 14" x 24" Telsmith jaw crushers. This crushing circuit reduces the ore to minus 50 mm and it is then deposited by the No 2 belt stockpile conveyor onto the coarse ore stockpile which has a live capacity of approximately 2,000 tonnes of material. Ore from the coarse ore stockpile is then fed onto the triple-deck vibrating screen with the oversize being crushed to minus 12 mm by one of two 38H Telsmith Gyrasphere crushers. The 12mm ore is then fed into the 600 tonne Mill Bin which feeds the two (of the three installed) 1.8 x 3.6 m rod mills where it is milled down to approximately 70% passing 75 microns, before being passed through two 30 inch continuous Knelson Concentrators where approximately 49% of total gold production is recovered.

Tramp iron magnets (located ahead of the crushers) remove scrap iron before it enters the cone crushers. This is important as any iron products from underground will cause major damage to the crushers if allowed to enter the crusher bowl. The crushed ore is stored on a 900 t open stockpile from where material is fed to the cone crushers.

The cone crushers were upgraded recently and replaced with two 38" hydraulically adjusted Nordberg crushers. The crushers can operate independently and feed Osborne vibrating screens. The screened product which is smaller than 10 mm is delivered to the mill feed bin. The equipment quality is good and good maintenance is applied (an observation made during the site visit).

There are three 6.5 ft. x 12 ft. rod mills which operate in parallel. Each feed belt has a mill feed mass meter which is used to control and measure the mill feed rate. The foundations of the previous mills were in the process of being demolished which leaves adequate space for future expansion.

The Knelson Concentrator tails are pumped through cyclones and into a 3.66 x 4.9 m x 750kW (1,000 HP) regrind ball mill.

The plant consists of the following circuits:
- gravity circuit;
- dewatering cyclones;
- CIL;
- combined elution and electrowinning;
- smelt house;
- carbon re-activation in a kiln;
- reagent make-up and dosing circuits; and
- water recycling and storage.

Approximately 45% to 50% of the gold production is recovered as gravity gold. Concentrate from the Knelson Concentrators is stored and re-concentrated on a Gemini table every 24 hours with the tailings recycled back into the circuit. Gemini table concentrates go for direct smelting whilst the tailings are pumped to the classifying hydro cyclone. The Knelson Concentrator tails are pumped through cyclones, the underflow of which reports to the open-circuit regrind ball mill.

The product from the Knelson tails cyclone overflow and the regrind mill discharge is pumped into the CIL plant. The CIL consists of one pre-aeration tank and eight leach tanks where alkaline-cya ........