Kalgold Gold Mine, South Africa

Kalgold mine is an open pit operation owned by South Africa-based Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited. Located 60km south of the town of Mafikeng in the North West Province of South Africa, the mine includes a Carbon in Leach (CIL) plant.

Harmony acquired Kalgold in July 1999, and in November 2003 the group entered into an agreement to sell the mine to Afrikander Lease Limited. However, the contractual obligations were not met and subsequently the agreement was cancelled in March 2004.

Production disruptions at Kalgold

Water shortages followed by heavy rainfall and electric disruptions had a negative effect on production at Kalgold in 2007 and 2008, leading to a loss of production, which was compounded by numerous instances of plant breakdowns.

The disruptions caused 3% decline in the volumes milled at Kalgold in 2008. However, a significant improvement in the gold grade to 1.89 gram per tonne during the year helped Harmony to more than double its gold production from the mine.

Geological information

Operations at the Kalgold mine are located within the Kraaipan Greenstone Belt near Mafikeng town.

The belt is a part of the larger Amalia-Kraaipan Greenstone terrain. It comprises linear belts of Archaean meta-sedimentary and meta-volcanic rocks trending northwards and separated by granitoid units.

Shallow dipping quartz veins in the form of swarms or clusters within the steeply dipping magnetite-chert banded iron formation are found in the mineralisation.

The largest orebody encountered in the region is the D Zone, which has been mined extensively along a strike length of 1,300m within a single open pit operation. Mineralisation was also found in the A Zone; the Mielie Field, adjacent to the D Zone; A Zone West (along strike to the north of the D Zone); and the Watertank and Windmill areas to the north of the A Zone.

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