Durban Roodeport Deep Gold Mine Lease (Johannesburg)

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The original mine ceased operations in 1993 but this lease is now part of DRDGold Limited's Crown Operations which recovers gold from old slime dams and tailing impoundments.

The DRD Lease covers a surface area of approximately 34.2km2 and is located approximately 20km west of Johannesburg. The Lease is intersected by all reefs contained in the Central Rand Group, namely, the Main Reef, South Reef, Bird Reef, Kimberley Reef and Elsburg Reefs.

Historical ownership and mining activities on the DRD

The DRD mine has had a long and illustrious history and was commonly referred to as the "Grand Old Lady". The mine was administered and managed by Rand Lease Gold Mining Company Limited (Rand Mines) from approximately 1897, after the Rand Mines shareholders began a systematic acquisition of the deep levels of many of the mines that started on the Central Rand from the strike extensions of the first discoveries at Langlaagte in 1886.

The mine had geology, sampling and survey departments which systematically recorded sampling information for exploration, development and stoping operations over the entire history of the mine. Much of this information was recorded onto cloth plans which were used by management for planning purposes. Importantly, the Durban Deep geologists were expert at defining the geology of the Kimberley Reefs since this multibanded unit has a number of conglomerate bands that are channelised and very variable in grade. The so-called 8-Band was a main stay of the mine and when Doornkop went into production in the 1980's there was much debate about which bands they were exploiting relative to the Durban Deep succession. For this reason, taking cognizance of the work and knowledge developed at Durban Deep will be crucial to guide the West Wits exploration work. The mine operated up until 1993 produced 21m ounces of gold.

Reference for information:
www.drd.co.za/b/b_i.asp
www.westwitsmining.com/projects/drd/
www.drd.co.za/b/crown.asp