Overview
| Status | Closing / Closed |
| Mine Type | Underground |
| Commodities |
|
| Mining Method |
- Pillar mining
- Breast mining
|
| Production Start | ...  |
Unisel 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. |
Source:
p. 381
Contractors
- Subscription is required.
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 ........
Mining Methods
- Pillar mining
- Breast mining
Summary:
Mining in the stopes has ceased, with closure activities underway including the successful, safe extraction of the shaft pillar.
Unisel is a mature, underground, single-shaft mining operation, operating at depths from 1 100m to 2 200m below surface. Mining operations are scattered and, due to the age of the shaft and the extent of mining, lie 2-4km from the shaft.
Mining operations take place from 2 level down to 13 level, by means mainly of breast panel mining. Limited down-dip panels and wide raises are undertaken periodically. Footwall development comprises haulages and crosscuts with service ways and ore passes developed to access the reef horizons. Face length cannot exceed 30m and strike pillars are left as support between the panels.
Source:
Summary:
- subscription is required.
Production:
The FY21 results are for the four months until 31 October 2020.
- Subscription is required.
Operational Metrics:
| Metrics | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|
Tonnes milled
| ...... | 219 kt | 256 kt | 376 kt | 394 kt | 424 kt |
- Subscription is required.
Reserves at June 30, 2019:
| Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
|
Proven
|
0.2 Mt
|
Gold
|
4.81 g/t
|
29 koz
|
|
Probable
|
0.1 Mt
|
Gold
|
4.13 g/t
|
7 koz
|
|
Proven & Probable
|
0.2 Mt
|
Gold
|
4.65 g/t
|
36 koz
|
|
Measured
|
0.6 Mt
|
Gold
|
8.22 g/t
|
156 koz
|
|
Indicated
|
0.2 Mt
|
Gold
|
8.62 g/t
|
53 koz
|
|
Total Resource
|
0.8 Mt
|
Gold
|
8.32 g/t
|
209 koz
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
- Subscription is required.
- Subscription is required.