Buffelsfontein Gold Mine - Hartebeestfontein

 mine, gold mine

Buffelsfontein gold mine (BGM) started in production in 1942 under the ownership of Rand Mines. In 1964 Gencor limited, formerly General Mining Union Corporation Limited, merged with Strathmore Consolidated Investments then gained control of BGM. Randgold & Exploration Company Limited then purchased Blyvoor from Gencor in September 1997 and subsequently formed the Durban Roodepoort Deep Group (DRDGOLD) to hold the mine. DRD Gold was the result of the merging of Durban Roodepoort Deep Limited and Buffelsfontein Gold Mines Limited (and Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining Company Limited).

In August 1997 DRD bought the Hartebeestfontein Mine from the Anglovaal group and consolidated it with Buffelsfontein creating separate north and south divisions. DRD operated the mine until March 22, 2005 at which point they put it under provisional liquidation after continued losses and a March 9 seismic event which damaged a shaft. In that same year, Simmer & Jack Mines resumed underground mining at shaft 5 in December after refurbishing it. Other shafts were then brought back on line as production expanded. Then, on June 27, 2011 Village main reef acquired Simmer & Jack in a R1bn reverse takeover.

After operating the mine for 2 years Village announced in May 2013 that they were closing the mine as in their option the orebody was no longer financially viable. However, at the time of closure the reserves were still impressive with proven and probable reserves of 5.7 million ounces of gold and 27.32 million tons of uranium graded at 6.12g/t; Measured and indicated resources of 11.02 million ounces of gold and 35.45 million tons of uranium graded at 10.67g/t.

Buffelsfontein had 12 shaft complexes and 2 gold plants and a uranium plant, as well as surface retreatment operations. Over its lifetime the mine produced more than 71 million ounces of gold and also produced uranium until the mid 1990's when prices dropped. Mining was conducted using conventional breast mining method with scraper winch cleaning. Ore processing included semi autogenous grinding (SAG), thickening, cyanide leaching, carbon-in-pulp (CIP) and carbon processing before final recovery of gold.

Regionally Buffelsfontein is located in the Witwatersrand Basin which is a late Archean-aged basin that is comprised of an inter-bedded sequence of arenaceous and argillaceous sediments. The basin is located on the Kaapvaal Craton and is 6 km thick, 300 km wide from northeast to southwest, and 100 km wide northwest to southeast. All sections of the basin except the northern section are overlain by 4km of volcanic and sedimentary rocks from the Archaean, Proterozoic and Mesozoic period.

Locally Buffelsfontein is located in the Vaal Reefs which is a large laterally extensive quartz pebble conglomerate comprised of successive quartzite packages and oligomictic conglomerates concentrated on a series of non-conformities. Gold mineralization occurs at the bottom of the congomerate layers which are typcially less than 50 meters thick. In the north division of the mine (Hartebeestfontein) the Vaal Reef depth is in a range between 800 m and 2,500 m, and the south division (Buffelsfontein) the depth is in a range between 800 m and 1,000 m.