WHO ARE WE
We are a privately owned mining investment company whose primary assets are the Klipwal and Kortnek mines. These are located in the KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa, around 70km east of Piet Retief towards the town of Pongola. Road access from Johannesburg and Durban’s main airports is equi-distant at around 350km.
WHERE ARE WE
Set in a farming community within the mountainous Simdlangentsha rural area and adjacent to the Ithala Nature Reserve, the area is host to six tribal authorities living in dispersed settlements. As its name suggests this is a region of wild bush and possibly the only gold mine in the world where elephants occasionally wander through.
OUR GEOLOGY
REGIONAL GEOLOGY
The mine is located in the Mozaan Group (Pongola Super group) of northern Kwa-Zulu Natal. This suite of conglomerates, quartzites, siltstones, shales, ironstones, diamictites, basalts and agglomerates have been dated at approximately 2,900 billion years old and are thus classified as Randian or Meso-Late Archean, and have been intruded by younger dolerites and granites. The ore body is hosted within a broad (± 100m wide) zone of deformation, the Klipwal Shear, which strikes north/south for some 12 km and represents a regional scale thrust structure. Along the same shear is Kortnek, owned by GNT with small scale-opeartions,the Ngotshe and Wonder Mines (dormant) is situated SE of Klipwal in Ithala Game Reserve, and Altona (dormant) to the NW.
MINE GEOLOGY
The deposit is structurally controlled and related to the Klipwal Shear. The Primary Reef, the “R” Reef, occurs along the shear. Associated ore bodies, including the “H” and “J” Reefs were located, and to a limited extent, mined in the hanging- and foot-walls of the primary shear. These latter reefs or mineralized zones, form the basis for future underground exploration to establish mineral resources in the existing levels of the mine and at depth. Mining to date has extended over a strike length of 1,470m and to a vertical depth of 454m below shaft collar. Underground workings are accessed via an adit at 6 Level, but will ultimately be accessed via the vertical shaft once refurbished, which extends to 12 L, with a decline to 15L. The mine is currently flooded to 10 Level, although it is being pumped for future operations.
UNDERGROUND MINERAL RESOURCE
GnT retained the services of the competent person who had been retained by a previous owner in 2005 to provide a resource statement. Owing to the lower levels of the mine being flooded, it was impossible to carry out confirmatory drilling to maintain resources in the measured and inferred category. However, given the operating history and limited mining that has taken place, he provided a NI 43-101 resource statement as at December 2022:
| Resource | Tonnes | Grade | Gold (Grams) | Gold (oz) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inferred | 794 000 | 10.71 | 8 502 000 | 273 000 |
