Pan African sharpens gold focus as Sylvania buys Phoenix for R89m

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold-focused mining company Pan African has successfully concluded a conditional agreement with Sylvania Platinum for the disposal of all of its shares and loan accounts in its wholly-owned subsidiary Phoenix Platinum to Sylvania for R89-million cash.

The disposal of Phoenix, which for some time has been noncore to Pan African, enables the London Aim- and Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company, headed by CEO Cobus Loots, to strengthen its financial position further and to focus on existing gold operations and the construction of the Elikhulu gold tailings project, which is on track to contribute low-cost gold ounces and profits in the next 18 months.

The cash proceeds from the sale of Phoenix will supplement the existing cash resources of the company, which has available debt facilities of R880.2-million and sharply reduced net debt of R66.7-million compared with R339.7-million last year.

The disposal follows Pan African’s sale earlier this year of the Uitkomst colliery to Coal of Africa, which brought the company R125-million in cash, another R125-million through the issue of new ordinary shares in Coal of Africa and R25-million in interest.

The Phoenix transaction is expected to be finalised within a 90-day timeframe.

Pan African is guiding gold production of 190 000 oz-plus in the financial year ending June 30, 2018, which represents a 10% increase on 2017 gold production.

Currently, the completed Evander Mines shaft refurbishment and restructuring programme are yielding substantial cost savings, and under way from internal funding is a R105-million project aimed at the addition of 7 000 oz to 10 000 oz of gold a year from the development of the sub-vertical shaft at Barberton Mines’ high-grade Fairview mining operation, for which a feasibility study has been completed.

Set to continue for the remainder of the 2018 financial year is mining in the high-grade areas of the Fairview gold mine’s 11-block.

Pan African, with the assistance of DRA Projects, has completed a feasibility study on the construction of a raise-bored, sub-vertical shaft from Fairview’s’ 42 Level to 64 Level, with the potential to continue the vertical shaft in future to 68 Level.

This sub-vertical shaft will be used to transport employees and material to the working areas, which will allow the No 3 Decline to be used exclusively for rock hoisting, increasing overall capacity and production from this mining area.

DRA has reviewed the technical and commercial aspects of the project and the supporting feasibility study has yielded very positive results.

The estimated capital expenditure (capex) for the project, including contingencies of R105-million, will be incurred over a two-year period.

The productivity improvements for Fairview are estimated to yield an additional 7 000 oz/y of gold, which can be optimised further to more than 10 000 oz/y.

The Evander Mines team has been mandated to bring the 2010 Pay Channel project to account in a profitable and value-accretive manner in the near term.

The 2010 Pay Channel resource is next to the 7 Shaft infrastructure and extends from the boundary of Taung Gold International Limited’s 6 Shaft project and mining rights.

A programme to drill a further exploration borehole from surface has increased geological confidence in the 2010 Pay Channel orebody.

The 2010 Pay Channel is 3 km in tramming distance from 7 Shaft, which is currently used by Evander for hoisting to the Kinross metallurgical plant.

This compares favourably with the 8 Shaft mining areas, which are 10 km in tramming distances from 7 Shaft.

The feasibility study under way will collate geological data from the drill hole intersection and deflections.

It will also look at the cost and timing of dewatering and re-equipping the 7 Shaft No 3 Decline from 18 Level to 22 Level and the development cost and timing to access the 2010 Pay Channel, which has the potential to increase Evander’s gold production at a relatively low capital cost, using established shaft and metallurgical facilities.

The feasibility study for the project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.