Mining Intelligence and News
South Africa

Unisel Mine

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusClosing / Closed
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Pillar mining
  • Breast mining
Production Start... Lock
SnapshotUnisel is a single-shaft, intermediate-depth mine in the Free State. Having been in production since 1979, Unisel has reached the end of its life, and was closed in the first half of FY21. This mine served a myriad of stakeholders in the province well over its 40-year life.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd. 100 % Indirect

Deposit type

  • Conglomerate hosted

Summary:

Unisel mines gold-bearing reefs from the Witwatersrand Super Group, which is situated on the Kaapvaal Craton. The mine lies in the Free State goldfields on the south-western edge of the basin. The Basal and Leader reefs are the main economic horizons in the Unisel area. The Basal Reef occurs at the base of the Harmony Formation and overlies the footwall beds (Welkom Formation) with a marked unconformity. This erosional unconformity cuts progressively deeper into the footwall when traced from north to south. The Leader Reef lies at the base of the Dagbreek Formation. The separation between the Basal and the Leader reefs varies from subcrop of the Basal against the Leader Reef in the west to 17m in the eastern areas of the lease. The subcrop is beyond the mine lease area, within the lease area between the two major gold-bearing reefs, which varies from 13m in the west to 17m in the east. The Middle Reef is a channelised deposit forming a discreet channel running from west to east. This channel lies to the north of the shaft. Stratigraphically, it lies between the Basal and Leader reefs.

Structurally, the sedimentary package, within which Unisel mines, strikes north south and dips to the east with dips ranging between 25 and 40 degrees. Faulting consists predominantly of north-south trending normal faults dipping to the west with a right lateral displacement. The most significant is the Stuirmanspan fault of about 800m and the Unisel fault of 110m. West-east trending thrust faults cut through the property.

Igneous intrusions, in the form of dykes and sills, are present with the sill lying sub parallel to the Basal and Leader reefs with an effect on mining operations with the reef horizon split by the sill.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

The FY21 results are for the four months until 31 October 2020.
CommodityUnits2021202020192018201720162015
Gold oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe38,96641,15251,28054,78554,495

Operational metrics

Metrics2021202020192018201720162015
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe256 kt376 kt394 kt424 kt417 kt

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,029 / oz   1,463 / oz   1,203 / oz  
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,149 / oz   1,642 / oz   1,354 / oz  

Operating Costs

Currency20172016
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD 127.91  100.7  

Financials

Units20212020201920182017
Capital expenditures M USD  ....  Subscribe 3   7   6  
Revenue M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 50   57   67  
Gross profit M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 10   -3   6  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 8, 2023

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2020
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2019
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2018
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2017
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2016
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2015
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2014

Aerial view:

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