Blyvoor

Blyvoor is situated on the north-western edge of the Witwatersrand Basin, to the south of the town of Carletonville and 70km south-west of Johannesburg, in North West Province. The mine has underground and surface operations and a gold plant. The first ore was raised in 1942.

Blyvoor has two main gold-bearing horizons: the Carbon Leader Reef (CLR), which is one of the principal orebodies of the Carletonville goldfield; and the Main Reef, which is some 75m above the CLR horizon. The reef formations have a thickness of between 5cm and 20cm. Recently there has been a shift in focus to mining the Main Reef.

Underground ore is mined by traditional drill, blast and scape narrow-reef mining methods. The operation is a combination of the workings of Blyvoor and Doornfontein mines and this allows several means of access, with four surface shafts still available and open.

Apart from the underground operations, production comes from waste rock stockpiles and the retreatment of surface tailings with the latter accounting for approximately 30% of current gold production.

Blyvoor’s carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant has a plant capacity of around 400 000 tonnes a month.

Life of mine is projected until 2030, but the resource at Blyvoor is so widespread that production could extend for many years beyond that, depending on the prevailing gold price and exchange rate.

In 2009 total gold production decreased by 8% to 129 473 ounces (2008:141 172 ounces) reflecting an 8% drop in throughput to 4 036 000 tonnes (2008:4 406 000 tonnes). Overall yield, however, held steady at 1.0 grams per tonne (g/t). Operating profit was 17% higher at R176.2 million (2008: R150.9 million) and capital expenditure increased by 30% to R97.5 million (2008: R74.8 million).

Growth projects

Mining from the Way Ahead Project (formerly known as Phase 2 of the No 2 Sub-shaft Project) – to access the orebody between 27 and 35 levels from No 5 Shaft – began the first week of October 2008. Production build-up continued according to plan during 2009 with the goal of 1 200m² for the end of the financial year being exceeded.

The purpose of No 6 shaft's 15/29 Incline Project is to open up the Main Reef and CLR reserves of some 540 000m². Supplier delays have had a negative impact on this project. The upper portion is in production but overall build-up has been slower than anticipated. Deeping of the incline to facilitate smoother loading of reef is in progress.

Blyvoor: Underground plan

Key statistics

		12 months to 30 Jun 2009	12 months to 30 Jun 2008
Ore milled
Underground	t’000	603	687
Surface	t’000	3 433	3 719
Total	t’000	4 036	4 406
Yield
Underground	g/t	4.59	4.70
Surface	g/t	0.37	0.31
Total	g/t	1.00	1.00
Gold produced
Underground	oz	88 898	103 813
	kg	2 765	3 229
Surface	oz	40 575	37 359
	kg	1 262	1 162
Total	oz	129 473	141 172
	kg	4 027	4 391
Cash operating costs
Underground	US$ per oz	878	772
	ZAR per kg	255 517	181 518
	ZAR per tonne	1 172	853
Surface	US$ per oz	337	387
	ZAR per kg	98 124	90 971
	ZAR per tonne	36	28
Total	US$ per oz	709	670
	ZAR per kg	206 191	168 034
	ZAR per tonne	206	157
Gold and silver revenue	(US$ million)	112.6	n/a
	(ZAR million)	1 018.5	n/a
Cash operating profit	US$ million	20.8	21.4
	ZAR million	188.2	156.4
Capital expenditure (net)	US$ million	10.7	10.2
	ZAR million	97.2	74.8