Gold Fields

The workings are accessed from the surface through two shaft systems, the Twin Shaft Complex (main and ventilation shafts), of which the main shaft comprises a single drop to 110A level, a depth of 2,998 metres, the vent shaft to 110 level (2,947m) and the South Shaft Complex, which is a sub-vertical system (three operating shafts) to 95 level at a depth of 2,786m.

The mine is divided into three main areas:

1. Current Mine, characterised by selective mining methods scattered over a large area originally exploited by means of conventional tabular mining. Current Mine is accessed from three active levels (90, 93 and 95) from both the South Shaft and Twin Shaft complexes.
2. The North of Wrench (NoW) area, directly south of Current Mine comprises six mining corridors separated by regional pillars that extend southwards to the Wrench fault. A bulk non-selective mining method is applied here resulting in a higher Resource to Reserve conversion ratio.
3. South of Wrench (SoW) East and West, situated south of NoW, which will be mined in the same manner as NoW.

South Deep gold mine operates one on-property gold plant. The comminution circuit comprises two stage milling with a free gold recovery circuit and gold recovery is carried out using a conventional leach/carbon-in-pulp (CIP) circuit. Final product from both the free gold and CIP circuits is smelted into bullion.

1. Mineralisation hosted by conglomerates (reefs);
2. Laterally continuous with long-range predictability;
3. Clear patterns of predictable mineralisation governed by sedimentary characteristics; and
4. Ore body definition and resource modelling programmes are ongoing.

The reef horizons exploited in the South Deep LoM include the Ventersdorp Contact Reef (VCR) and the Upper Elsburg formation conglomerates. In the western half of the mining lease area the VCR occurs as a single reef horizon that overlies footwall lithologies of the Turffontein Subgroup. The Upper Elsburg reefs, subcropping below the VCR in a north-northeast trend, comprise multiple stacked reef horizons forming an easterly-divergent clastic wedge as illustrated in the schematic section opposite.

This wedge attains a thickness of approximately 120 to 130 metres in the vicinity of the eastern boundary of the mining right area. The Upper Elsburg Reefs constitute ~99% of the South Deep Mineral Reserve ounces, while the VCR makes up the remaining ~1%.