The main structures at Joel are associated with the Platberg Extension. These faults are north-south striking, steeply dipping and typically have downthrows to the east of 10m to 100m. These downthrows form a graben against the De Bron Fault, which has a 450m upthrow to the east. East of the De Bron Fault, the reef has been either truncated or eroded against the Karoo Supergroup.

Minor east-west striking faults are also present. However, displacements on these faults are generally less than 10m, which are believed to be Klipriviersberg in age. Low angle reverse faulting is also present. These structures trend north-south, have small displacements and dip towards the east. These structures may be related to the central Rand Contractional event.

The Klippan Formation has been preserved as an east-west trending erosional channel that has eroded deeply through the Witwatersrand sediments and has eliminated the Beatrix/VS5 horizon in the eastern portion of the mine and cut out a significant chunk in an east west direction through the middle of the lease area. Regionally the Klippan Formation is preserved in the north-south striking basin, known as the Virginia Basin in the Southern Free State, which parallels the De Bron Fault.

A deep erosional channel of Platberg Group volcano-sedimentary rock, known as the Klippan Channel, truncates the Beatrix Reef some 1.8km to the north of south shaft. This washout feature is wedge-shaped with its apex to the ........

Joel is an intermediate-depth underground gold mine that consists of two shaft complexes interconnected via a triple decline system, spanning four levels and mining at depths of up to 1350m BMD.

Joel was originally designed to adopt trackless mechanised mining when production commenced at South Shaft, but in 1994 a decision was made to change to conventional mining mainly due to the high operating costs of trackless mining. Joel consists of two interconnected shaft complexes, the South Shaft complex which is the main operational shaft and the North Shaft which is available for hoisting ore.

The south shaft complex has two shafts, namely 3 shaft (men and material) and 4 shaft (ventilation). This shaft system was sunk beyond the reef sub-outcrop and is located on the southern extremity of the orebody. These two shafts go down to 1 050m below collar and cover four levels, namely 60 and 70 levels (which are mined-out trackless levels), 90 level, which is the main transfer level, and 95 level, which houses the pumping and loading facilities.

The north shaft complex is a single-shaft system, sunk and lined to 1 471m below collar, but not yet equipped to hoist people. Feasibility studies were conducted in 2005 to determine whether this shaft could assist in extending Joel’s life-of-mine by opening up 129 level. This shaft was upgraded in February 2006 to enable hoisting of ore through the north shaft barrel. Hoisting was halted in March 2007, owing t ........

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